Chelsea and Azzurrini midfielder Cesare Casadei has won both the Golden Ball and the Golden Boot awards as a result of his stellar performances at the Under-20 World Cup in Argentina over the course of the last month.
The 20-year-old, who spent the second half of the 2022-23 season on loan with Championship side Reading at club level, finished his international campaign as the tournament’s top goalscorer with an impressive return of seven goals from midfield.
Casadei netted a pair of braces in Italy’s group stage games against Brazil and Dominican Republic, before scoring in three consecutive knock-out matches against England, Colombia and South Korea on the team’s way to the final.
Whilst Italy fell to a 1-0 loss against Uruguay in the last game of the tournament, Casadei’s goalscoring prowess had already been enough to secure the Golden Boot award.
So instrumental were his performances in Argentina, that FIFA also decided that he had shown enough to be named as the player of the tournament as well, joining a star-studded list of players to have won the U20 World Cup Golden Ball, which includes Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero and Paul Pogba.
The accolades for the young Italian side did not stop there either. Goalkeeper Sebastiano Desplanches of Serie C side Trento was also named as the tournament’s Golden Glove winner for his performances between the sticks.