Much has been said about the lack of trust in young players in Serie A, but injuries to first team regulars have allowed the next generation to start breaking through in the topflight.
When Italy unexpectedly fell to North Macedonia in their World Cup play-off match back in March 2022, the discourse surrounding the national team quickly began to focus on how little the team had changed since winning Euro 2020 the previous year, once the initial shock and pain had subsided.
A narrative started to form that Roberto Mancini and the Azzurri placed too much trust in their experienced veterans instead of attempting to bring through the next generation. The counter to this was that there weren’t enough talents developing in Serie A, and that has been true for years.
The blame couldn’t just be assigned to one factor, with various elements coming into play that left young Italians struggling for minutes in the topflight. One common area of complaint was an overreliance on foreign players, particularly older ones with years of experience abroad.
This was something that teams across the table were accused of, from Juventus and Inter down to Salernitana and Cagliari. Mancini himself even suggested that more youngsters follow the path of Wilfried Gnonto, who switched Italy for Switzerland in order to play regular first-team football.
This suggestion pained supporters, especially those from the top clubs who invest heavily in their youth systems for seemingly no reward, and it was clear that change was needed before things truly started to spiral out of control with the national team.
Well, change has come, although not likely in the way expected following their disastrous night in Palermo back in March 2022. Rather than a shift in mentality, injuries have allowed youngsters to start finally getting minutes in Serie A.
An early example of this is Gianluigi Donnarumma, who was given his debut at Milan at the age of 16 back in 2015 after the club’s first-choice goalkeeper Diego Lopez suffered a serious knee injury. We all know how things ended up going for the Italian goalkeeper.
In a more recent example, 15-year-old Francesco Camarda came off the bench to make his debut for the Rossoneri in their recent win over Fiorentina, being a part of Stefano Pioli’s squad due to Noah Okafor’s injury and Olivier Giroud’s suspension.
Jan-Carlo Simic followed in his footsteps, having a debut to remember in Milan’s clash with Monza, replacing the injured Tommaso Pobega in the first half. The 18-year-old went on to score, instantly making a strong impression.
Hans Nicolussi Caviglia, Dean Huijsen and Kenan Yildiz all found space in Massimiliano Allegri’s Juventus squad this season thanks to a lack of options, partly due to injuries and partly due to off-pitch concerns.
So, why is this more relevant now than ever?
The reason is because of UEFA and FIFA’s insistence to squeeze every drop of blood out of topflight players for revenue, changing competitions like the Champions League and Club World Cup to feature dramatically more games to increase the value of television rights deals and advertising income.
This unending desperation to commercialise every molecule of modern football even extends to Italy, where the Supercoppa Italiana has now become even more soulless with the inclusion of four teams and matches played in Saudi Arabia.
Whilst the unforgiving capitalist machine may drive top players into the ground with thousands of minutes played every season, it does come as a benefit to the young talents stuck on the fringes of first team squads, giving them opportunities to shine on the main stage that might not have existed a decade ago.
Words: @ApolloHeyes