Udinese talent Simone Pafundi has become the youngest player to make his senior Italy debut in over 100 years, aged just 16 years and 247 days.
The trequartista usually plays behind the strikers and has been compared to Lionel Messi for his characteristics.
He had four goals in five games for the Italy Under-17 squad and was promoted directly to the senior team for this evening’s 3-1 win away to Albania.
Roberto Mancini gave Pafundi a brief run-out in the final minutes at the Air Albania Stadium in Tirana.
At 16 years and 247 days, he becomes the first player to make his senior Italy debut before the age of 17 in the last 100 years.
He doesn’t hold the overall record for the Azzurri, because that goes to Pietro Antonio Gavinelli, who was 16 years and 97 days when he took to the field in a 2-2 draw with France on April 9, 1911.
Renzo De Vecchi was next in line aged 16 years and 111 days when he made his debut in a 6-1 defeat to Hungary on May 26, 1910.
Pafundi has only played one game in Serie A for Udinese, coming on for 22 minutes in the 4-0 victory away to Salernitana on May 22, 2022.
how did he play?
He only played a few minutes
Wow a whole 5 minutes
Useless this is……
no A, this is really a good deed of Mancini. This kid could really be the next big thing in Italian football. You have to include him now and try to give him the right environment och hopefully he´ll grow into the italian Messi.
How highly touted is he? The article mentions Messi in the same sentence.. yikes, seems like a bit of an exaggeration!
Good luck to him, but I’m not sure this was a particularly clever thing to do. There will inevitably be huge pressure and media attention focussed on the kid now (I mean, comparisons with Messi??? He hasn’t even played a full game in Serie A!)