Inter Milan’s 20-year-old striker Francesco Pio Esposito is rightly being lauded and scored his first goal for Italy against Estonia last week, but another name is making waves – Francesco Camarda, a player three years younger, and potentially more devastating.<\/p>\n
Together, they could well become the strike partnership that defines the Azzurri’s future.<\/p>\n
At 17 years, six months and 18 days old, Camarda scored his first Serie A goal against Bologna in September, becoming the youngest player in Lecce’s history to do so – the AC Milan forward sent south to gain experience on loan under Eusebio di Francesco.<\/p>\n
With that goal before the international break, he broke yet another record in his remarkably precocious career.<\/p>\n
Camarda had already made history on 25 November 2023, when he came on late in Milan’s game against Fiorentina.<\/p>\n
Under Stefano Pioli, he became the youngest player to make his debut in Serie A. The Italian FA granted Milan a special exemption to allow Camarda to play at just 15 years, eight months, and 13 days, because regulations do not allow players under 16 to feature in the top flight.<\/p>\n
He was also the youngest player to appear for Milan, breaking the record held by legendary defender Paolo Maldini.<\/p>\n
The following season, under Paulo Fonseca, he made his Champions League debut against Club Brugge – with a goal ruled out by the video assistant referee (VAR) – becoming Milan and Italy’s youngest player to feature in the competition at 16 years and 226 days.<\/p>\n
This week, he also became the youngest Italian ever to score for the under-21s national team. On his Azzurrini debut against Sweden in a European Championship qualifier, the 17-year-old netted a cheeky Panenka penalty.<\/p>\n
It showcased all his qualities – composure, quick feet, strength on the ball, and an ice-cold temperament in front of goal.<\/p>\n
“Sometimes, when he drops deep, he still looks a bit raw technically, but inside the box he’s a phenomenon,” said manager Massimiliano Favo, who led Italy Under-17s to victory at the 2024 European Championship, where Camarda was his main striker.<\/p>\n
“His ability to find the right place and to handle the ball and his ruthlessness when shooting are things I’ve never seen in anyone of his age.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inter Milan’s 20-year-old striker Francesco Pio Esposito is rightly being lauded and scored his first goal for Italy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-219693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}