ROME, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Real Madrid's Italian talent Antonio Cassano will return to Italy's Serie A, local media reported on Tuesday.

    According to an agreement reached by Real Madrid and Genoa's Sampdoria, Cassano, 25, joins Sampdoria on a one-year loan and the Genoa side will have an option to buy him at the end of the season for 5.5 million euros.

    The former AS Roma striker agreed to cut his salary by half a million euros. Sampdoria will pay Cassano 1.2 million euros a year and Real Madrid will pick up the rest of his 4.2-million-euro salary, the report said.

    Cassano transferred to Real Madrid in the middle of the 2005-2006 after falling out with Roma.

    However, after a flashy debut he failed to fit in and went on to spend most of his time on the bench, also due to his legendary disciplinary problems.

    Some of his problems stemmed from his rocky relationship with coach Fabio Cappello, his former mentor at Roma, who was dismissed from the Real bench at the end of last season, despite winning the Liga title.

    Known as the bad boy of Italian soccer, the Italian press coined the word "Cassanata" to describe Cassano's antics which included no-shows, training tantrums and bickering with his coaches.

    Cassano joined Roma from his hometown team Bari in 2001 for 26 million euros.