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Calcio Debate: Top Ten Italian Wonderkids
It’s not easy being a young footballer in Europe in the 21st Century. Almost every promising kid is caught somewhere between a frustrating rock or very demanding hard place.
One moment they are perched expectantly on the edge of an over-stuffed substitute bench. The next they are being blinded by a ferocious media spotlight and christened the next Maradona.
Promise, as history has taught us so many times, does not always lead to greatness.
But if the sizeable crop of Italian youngsters currently setting Serie A and B alight do manage to live up to their potential, the future is going to be coloured Azzurri blue.
It’s difficult to remember a time when so many potentially exceptional talents have threatened to emerge at the same time. Truly, Italy have an abundance of future stars.
Heading this fresh-faced assault on a not-too-distant tomorrow are the likes of Alberto Aquilani, Fiorentina’s Pazzini and Montolivo, Juventus pair Giorgio Chiellini and Raffaele Palladino and Udinese’s Fabio Quagliarella. We already know all about these players so we won’t profile them again here.
Because behind these stellar talents there is already another generation of virtuoso kids trying to push through.
So, for the purposes of this particular list, we will only deal with players born in 1985 or after. Here, then, in no particular order, are our top 10 next generation Italian superstars in waiting. Don't say you haven't been warned.
1. Andrea Russotto
Club: Treviso
Age: 19
Position: Midfield
There is a good deal of mystery surrounding the extraordinarily talented Andrea Russotto. He grew up in the Lazio youth system and was establishing himself as one of the best young players in Italy. Then, just when things seemed as if they couldn't get any better, they suddenly got rapidly worse. He was mysteriously off-loaded to Swiss second-division club Bellinzona. Apparently, after refusing to sign a deal with powerful player representation agency, GEA, one of many pies Alessandro Moggi had his fingers in. His sale was an ultimatum; sign with us or forget about your career. The kid they are calling the 'new Baggio' is now, happily, playing a different kind of ball game for Treviso. Juventus are known to be interested.
2. Sebastian Giovinco
Club: Empoli
Age: 21
Position: Midfield
He may only be 5ft nothing tall but Juventus-owned youngster Sebastian Giovinco has been making a big splash all his footballing life. He has been Italy's first choice as 'fantasista' from the Under-16's upwards and is now showing his brilliance at Under-21 level. It was a slice of impossible skill from Giovinco that set-up Robert Acquafresca to beat Albania in the recent European Championship qualifier. Even an old stager like Dino Zoff is excited at this hottest of prospects. "Giovinco is the miniature Del Piero," commented the goalkeeping legend. "Indeed I believe he has superior fantasy and technical ability to Il Pinturicchio." Juventus have announced that the kid is not for sale at any price.
3. Lorenzo De Silvestri
Club: Lazio
Age: 19
Position: Right-back
Here is a remarkable 19-year-old right-back with a single-minded vision to break down barriers, wherever they may be. Last season Silvestri was still playing in the Lazio youth team but his stellar talent has now seen him force his way into the club's starting X1. He possesses something else too; fierce, analytical, intelligence. "To become a top footballer you need to have motivation, humility and education," argues this potential future Azzurri captain. De Silvestri has just enrolled at university to study law.
4. Luca Cigarini
Club: Parma
Age: 21
Position:
Midfield Parma's very own metronome, Cigarini's relentlessly accurate passing from just in front of the defence for both club and country have already seen him compared to the greatest ball distributor in the modern game, Andrea Pirlo. It is a comparison that he finds very flattering. "Being compared to Pirlo is a point of arrival for any player," admits this product of the Gialloblu youth system. He possesses the same subtlety of movement, the same ability to disguise a pass, the same lazy swing when he chips inch-perfect lobs into the feet of the strikers. "I am convinced myself, in the sense that I know my potential, that I am ready for a great team," he said a couple of weeks ago. Few would argue with him.
5. Robert Acquafresca
Club: Cagliari
Age: 20
Position: Striker
Tall, lighting quick, good in the air and with a marksman's eye for goal, the Turin-born striker is not having a great season on-loan with Cagliari but remains on fire for the Azzurrini scoring five goals since he made his debut against Albania in June 2007. The poetically-named former Treviso star was part of the deal that eventually took David Suazo to Inter in the summer and there has already been some talk of the Nerazzurri buying him back for an estimated £4 million. His agent, Paolo Fabbri, has advised him to stay where he is. "It is so easy to burnout and I've advised him to stay calm," revealed Fabbri, sensibly, back in December last year. Torino have also been interested. He just might be the long-term replacement for Luca Toni in the Italian team.
6. Giuseppe Rossi
Club: Villarreal CF
Age: 21
Position: Striker
Because Italian football forbids any player under the age of 18 from signing a contract, Manchester United were able to steal this New Jersey-born Italian-American from right under Parma's nose. Despite a series of prolific displays in the reserves, Rossi somehow never made the breakthrough at Old Trafford and was first loaned back to Parma, then, reluctantly, put up for sale by Alex Ferguson. For reason's best known to themselves, not one Serie A club was sufficiently interested in signing a player who has been compared to the impossibly-talented Giuseppe Signori. Rossi shrugged his shoulders and headed for Spain where he has scored 11 goals so far this season, even though he often starts out of position as a lone striker. Now even Roberto Donadoni is sitting up and taking notice.
7. Ricardo Montolivo
Club: Fiorentina
Age: 23
Position: Midfield
Roman Abramovich's super-scout, 71-year-old Piet de Visser was so impressed with the Fiorentina midfielder at last years European Under-21 Championships, he nearly fell off his chair. "Ricardo Montolivo is the superstar of all young midfielders in Europe," commented the seasoned spotter. "He has very good skills, but the best thing about him is that he combines his skills with fantastic running power. I could not spot a weakness in his game." Montolivo is yet another prodigious talent from the world class Atalanta youth system and yet another relentlessly accurate passer in the Pirlo mode. As influential as any other player in the Viola's impressive season, it is only a matter of time before he adds to his one senior international cap.
8. Antonio Nocerino :wth:
Club: Juventus
Age: 22
Position: Midfield
What a season it has been for Antonio Nocerino. Back in September, the young Neapolitan must have thought he find himself spending most of his time on the bench. But the failure of new signings Tiago and Almiron catapulted him into the very heart of Juve's push for a Champions League finish. And the 22-year-old has responded magnificently, becoming one of the finest box-to-box midfielders in Serie A. He has often been compared to Rino Gattuso but in truth this is a little wide of the mark. Nocerino has excelled in the role of midfield enforcer but possesses the easy technical ability of a creative type. A versatile future international certainty, in other words
9. Pablo Daniel Osvaldo
Club: Fiorentina
Age: 22
Position: Striker
Any Italian who witnessed his two stunning goals on his debut for Fiorentina against Livorno was delighted when this Argentine-born Italian citizen decided that he wanted to play for the country of his home and not the nation of his birth. The comparisons with Gabriel Batistuta are, perhaps, inevitable. Osvaldo even chose the legendary striker's number 9 when the shirts were handed out at the start of the season. "I knew it had belonged to Bati...it is an honour for me to wear it," said the young pretender. He certainly has the skill and explosiveness in the box to do justice to it.
10. Alberto Paloschi
Club: Milan
Age: 18
Position: Striker
Talk about making an entrance. Just 15 seconds after coming off the bench to make his debut for the current World and European champions. Alberto Paloschi won the game against Siena with his very first touch in Serie A. Within seconds, someone, somewhere was already calling him 'the new Pato'. It's a ridiculous tag and one that he is keen to play down. “I had a bit of luck, too. I really didn’t expect to score on my debut and I still feel goose-bumps now,” said the young striker after the game. He does not, however, make this list because of his instant impact in Serie A. He makes it because Carlo Ancelotti considered his performances in the Viareggio youth tournament to be so impressive that he merited a call-up to the first team.
goal.com
Why is Nocerino in that list?
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