Maurizio Crosetti had raised the alarm a few days ago in La Repubblica: Italian football is lagging behind, especially when it comes to talent. To realize this, just look around, perhaps at Barcelona’s home, where a certain Lamine Yamal16 years old on paper, is worth more than 200 million euros.
Paris Saint Germain had tried to get their hands on him, but in the meantime they are pampering themselves and enjoying the explosion of Warren Zaire Emery, an 18-year-old midfielder who promises to revolutionize the future of the Parisian team. And Serie A? What are our talents of the future? And above all: how are they going?
Simone Pafundi. Fonte Foto: DAZN
From Pafundi to Casadei
Let’s start from the first, then, from Simone Pafundi, midfielder and striker owned by Udinese, crowned a few years ago by Roberto Mancini as a rising star of our football. An investiture which, at least for now, has remained as such: 10 appearances in two years with the Friulians, before taking the foreign path, precisely to Lausanne, in Switzerland. The formula? Loan with right of redemption of 15 million. The statistics? 1 goal in 8 appearances. Slightly lower numbers than those of Yamal.
What happened instead? Cesare Casadei, snatched from Chelsea from Inter for almost 20 million euros in 2022, when he was 19 years old. Today the midfielder originally from Ravenna returned to London after two years at Reading and Leicester, where he certainly didn’t enchant.
Wilfried Gnonto. Photo Font: Transfermarkt
The numbers of Gnonto and Baldanzi
It doesn’t shine, for now, either Tommaso Baldanzi, who arrived at Roma in January as Dybala’s deputy and is still little appreciated. 11 games so far, between the championship and the Europa League, not even a goal and few of the plays that made him appreciated in Empoli. Different story for Camarda, the youngest debutant in the history of Serie A, with just 15 years and 8 months, but still everything to be deciphered and for Wilfried Gnonto, in his second year at Leeds United, this time in the Championship, and already with 8 goals in 35 appearances. Certainly not the best score in the world, but still something promising. Especially from a national perspective: Mateo Retegui scored his own goals, Ciro Immobile instead scored 10 goals, as did Gianluca Scamacca, while Giacomo Raspadori has just 5. If this is the competition, in short, Gnonto can rest assured. And even brag a little.