When Padova take to the field in Serie B next season, there will be a familiar name in their ranks.

The Euganei have not featured in the second tier for six years, having been relegated at the end of the 2018-19 campaign.

They have played only one season in Serie B in the last 11 years, spending most of the last decade slugging it out in the lower echelons of the Italian game after bankruptcy in 2014.

Yet from October, the most recognisable face from Padova’s squad will be Papu Gomez. That’s right, one of calcio’s most fascinating characters is returning to the Italian game, with the 37-year-old signing a deal until 2027 following his medical on Friday.

By the time Gomez takes to the pitch he will not have kicked a ball in a competitive setting for two years. Gomez’s last official match was for Monza against Salernitana on October 8, 2023. The former Atalanta star was banned for two years after failing a doping test.

Gomez was suspended for taking his son’s cough medicine during his time at Sevilla in the lead up to the 2022 World Cup. He was part of Argentina’s victorious squad in Qatar, playing in games against Saudi Arabia and Australia. 

To many, the punishment seemed severe and Gomez instructed his lawyers to fight his case. But the ban was upheld by FIFA in March 2024, with the argument that since Gomez had taken the substance at the behest of his wife and not administered it accidentally through food or drink, it amounted to ‘gross negligence’.

It meant he played only two games for Monza, his contract cut at the end of the 2023-24 season.

So, what can he offer after two years out of the game and very much in the twilight of his career?

Gomez is more than good enough to play in Serie B. During his prime years at Atalanta he was never the fastest player, his brain the greatest weapon in his arsenal.

Like all the great Argentine No 10s, Gomez is diminutive and possesses that seemingly inborn tactical nous to drift in between the lines, always wandering, always probing to hurt the opposition. Death by a thousand cuts.

Oddly enough, Gomez is perhaps the one Argentine player who doesn’t worship the No 10: Diego Maradona.

“He was a bandiera on the pitch,” Gomez said of Maradona in 2017. “But he lived a life that had nothing to do with sport. I have other models: [Pablo] Aimar, [Juan Roman] Riquelme and above all [Juan Sebastian] Veron: a true player, a man, a leader.”

And just like Aimar, Riquelme and Veron, sublime talents who visualised the game in HD during an analogue era, Gomez will still be able to cause damage at 37.

“At my age, I don’t care about money, but about a serious project, and Padova’s is,” said Gomez.

Serie B is played at a slightly slower pace than the top flight. Players have that second or two extra to keep the ball, something that will suit Gomez as he regains match sharpness during his first few games back on the grass.

Still a brilliant set-piece taker, Gomez will be a huge advantage to Padova from free-kicks. His leadership and experience is an added bonus for a squad made up primarily of Serie C players, many of whom have never tasted Serie B.

It can often be forgotten considering Atalanta’s success after he left, but it was hard to find a better confluence of manager and player at the right time at the right club in Gian Piero Gasperini and Gomez in Bergamo.

Despite how their relationship ended, Gasperini saved Gomez’s career. Floundering on the periphery of eastern Europe at the gloriously-named Metalist Kharkiv in Ukraine, Atalanta brought Gomez back into the big time in September 2014.

Gomez and Gasperini appeared to be completely in sync, two strong characters lifting Atalanta out of mid-table mediocrity towards the upper reaches of Serie A. So in unison that Gasperini referred to his man as ‘Atalanta’s Cristiano Ronaldo’ in the aftermath of a 4-0 drubbing of Frosinone.

Gasperini pulled the best out of Gomez, and in turn the Argentine produced magic time after time, feeding the likes of Andrea Petagna, Duvan Zapata, Luis Muriel and Josip Ilicic.

In four full seasons together, Gomez delivered a ludicrous 48 assists and chipped in with 36 league goals.

He was Gasperini’s general and had become the face of the club, with his ‘Papu dance’ gaining worldwide attention, just like his armband. Gomez would take to the field with the strap around his bicep depicting different characters from pop culture.

First it was a Mother’s Day tribute, then the Spiderman logo, the Holly & Benji cartoon and, in an emotional throwback to those of a certain generation, a celebration of Pro Evolution Soccer’s original Master League XI. 

And there was Anna, Elsa and Olaf from Frozen alongside his daughter Constantina to mark her second birthday in 2017. There was almost as much clamour to get a peek of Gomez’s armband as there was to watch Atalanta steamroll the opposition.

Atalanta qualified for the Champions League for the first time in 2019-20 and Gomez played a pivotal role in getting them there. Yet it was the same tournament that marked the beginning of the end of his time in Bergamo.

Atalanta were hosting Danish outfit Midtjylland in the penultimate round of the 2020-21 campaign and were losing early on. In an effort to mix things up, Gasperini directed Gomez to shift from the left wing to the right before the end of the first half. Gomez refused, believing he was playing well on the left.

For Gasperini this was an incredible loss of face, his captain refusing orders was a serious no-no, and Gomez knew it.

“Having done that in the middle of the game, with the cameras… it was perfectly [fine] that he got angry,” Gomez recalled in 2021.  “I already knew that at half-time he was going to take me out, and so [he did]. But in the locker room he exceeded the limits and tried to physically attack me.”

Fences were temporarily mended ahead of Atalanta’s final group game against Ajax in Amsterdam. Needing a win to advance to the round of 16, a late goal from Luis Muriel sealed their progress.

Gomez started the match but it was to be his last. Gasperini admitted Gomez had been their ‘most important player in the last few years’ but as manager he could not let such insubordination go.

The attacker apologised to Gasperini and his team-mates in the days after the incident, but when a subsequent apology was not forthcoming from Gasperini, who is known to be a stubborn character, Gomez demanded his release from Atalanta.

He was sold to Sevilla in late January 2021, marking a sad and bitter end to what was a glorious union.

In truth, his career never recovered. Gomez was a bit-part player in Spain and despite being part of the squad that won the Europa League against Jose Mourinho’s Roma in 2023, his time in Seville is instantly forgettable.

Thankfully, reconciliation would come. Gasperini’s assistant manager Tullio Gritti orchestrated a dinner in Bergamo’s old town at the legendary Caffe del Tasso last year. Hatchets were buried and both men have moved on.

As Gasperini embarks on a new adventure with Roma, Gomez is attempting to pick up the pieces of his career with Padova. The Gomez of Atalanta is gone, but he is still good enough to make a sizeable impact in Veneto. 

So keep an eye out for Padova in Serie B next season, as you may just see the Papu dance once more.