Here is what you need to know about Inter midfielder Stefano Sensi who has been linked with a move to Leicester City in the January transfer window.
The Italy international’s contract runs out in June 2024, so the English Championship leaders hope to secure his signature in the January transfer window for a low fee.
Sensi was once regarded as one of the most promising Italian midfielders, but his tendency to often get injured has seen his playing time drastically reduced at Inter, so he was sent out on loan at Sampdoria and Monza over the last two seasons.
The Italian midfielder joined Inter from Sassuolo in 2019 on an initial loan deal with an obligation to buy, and the impact under Antonio Conte was impressive. Sensi scored three goals and delivered four assists in his first seven Serie A games at the Stadio Meazza before sustaining an adductor injury that forced him to the sidelines for nearly two months.
Nevertheless, Conte had a big influence on his development as the Italian midfielder admitted in 2020.
“I’ve been training with a different intensity and I’ve improved by playing as a Mezzala [box-to-box midfielder],” he said.
“My improvements are all Conte’s merit.”
Sensi plays in a slightly more defensive position now and is more often deployed as a deep-lying playmaker.
The Italian midfielder played 40 games under Conte but had also worked under Roberto De Zerbi at Sassuolo, scoring two goals in 30 appearances with the current Brighton coach.
Sensi’s injury history is sadly long and saw him miss 77 games for club and country since his move to the Stadio Meazza in 2019.
In terms of pure quality, however, he is undoubtedly among the best Italian players of his generation, and it’s no coincidence that Roberto Mancini included him in Italy’s squad for Euro 2020. Unfortunately, Sensi was forced to pull out of the squad due to a muscular problem and when so-called fans on social media trolled him for his recurrent injuries, his partner Giulia Amodio stood up to defend him.
“It is really hard to understand how people can be so stupid, rude, insensitive, mean, disrespectful and incredibly ignorant at the same time. I hope you can receive the same treatment squared (so that you can understand how incredibly stupid you are),” she wrote on Instagram.
Sensi is technically so good that somebody even compared him to Andres Iniesta in the past. Among them were Antonio Cassano, Lele Adani and former Inter star Nicola Berti, a former Tottenham midfielder.
“Stefano is so strong,” Berti told Gazzetta in 2021.
“In the first two months under Conte, he played even better than Iniesta, but then he suffered too many injuries. After so many relapses, there is a mental block that prevents you from recovering the best shape and he had already had some issues at Sassuolo.”
A year later, Sensi seemed to have recovered his best form at Sampdoria, prompting Cassano to say that he was the “best Italian midfielder” and that Roberto Mancini “should have relied on him without thinking twice.”
Sensi, 28, has only made four appearances with Inter this season and was left out of their Champions League list for the group stage.
During the previous campaign, which he entirely spent on loan at Monza, he played regularly, scoring three goals in 28 Serie A appearances, proving that hopefully, the physical problems that tormented him during his career may be a memory of the past.
Nevertheless, the Nerazzurri are unlikely to offer him a contract extension so he is expected to leave the Stadio Meazza at the end of the season if he won’t join Leicester City or any other club in the January transfer window.