Inter’s stars of the future from the Primavera

Top of the Girone B section of the Campionato Primavera Tim – Trofeo Giacinto Facchetti, and through to the semi-final of the Nextgen Series Youth Champions League, the Inter Primavera boys are certainly in with a much better chance of bringing silverware home to Milan this campaign than their more illustrious seniors so lets take a look at some of the best prospects driving the Nerazzurri Primavera team’s success train.

For any of you who haven’t brushed up on your Primavera research, the Campionato Primavera Tim is the youth championship of Italian football with a format whereby originally the forty-two competing teams are divided into three ‘Girone’, or groups, of fourteen teams from around the Peninsula. The top sixteen sides from the final standings of the groups qualify for the knockout stage of the competition where eventually the winner is crowned the Trofeo Giacinto Facchetti Youth Champions of Italy.

Primavera coach, Andrea Stramaccioni’s boy’s are well on course to reach their minimum objective for the season and qualify for the knockout stages of the Trofeo Giacinto Facchetti, leading the standings in Girone B, sitting three points above second placed Albinoleffe, while they are also four points clear of city rivals Milan who lay fourth but with a game in hand.

The Primavera success so far is not limited to home soil either as the performances of their talented youngsters sees them vying for European glory in the inauguration of the Nextgen Series Youth Champions League having made it to the semi-finals of the competition where they will now face Olympique de Marseille on the 21^st March.

One failing of the Primavera boys this season though was their inability to defend their 2011 Viareggio Cup crown as they unluckily succumbed to Fiorentina on penalties in the Round of 16  of the prestigious tournament held in February. Nevertheless the Primavera team have not dwellt on their Viareggio failings and continue to impress and fight on in Europe and in the league.

So who are the stars of this Primavera team and who should we be looking out for in the future?

Well to begin with, there is no better place to start than with the brightest talent currently among the Inter Primavera ranks in Daniel Bessa. With seven goals to his name so far in the league and a further three goals in Europe, his strikes and overall performances have seen the attacking midfielder from Brazil, aged just nineteen, become the standout performer of Stramaccioni’s team this season.

Technically gifted with the ball at his feet, Bessa offers all the delights expected of a boy from Brazil, while also in keeping with his Italian heritage, something which has seen him represent Italy at youth level as an ‘Oriundi’,  Bessa also possesses a firm grounding in the requirements of the Italian game, demonstrating good positional sense and movement off the ball, the result of his four year education with Inter’s youth teams since moving from Atletico Paranaense in 2008, aged just fifteen.

This season has really seen Bessa’s emergence with the Primavera team  and following the sheer consistency of performances, some eager fans, relishing the youngster’s potential, have labelled him “Bossa” rather than Bessa, a nickname well earned if you catch a glimpse of his wonder goal to open the scoring for Inter in their Nextgen Series Champions League group stage, home win, over PSV where Bessa gathered the ball near the halfway line, skilfully dribbled at pace past five oncoming defenders, as if it something from a computer game, before neatly slotting the ball into the back of the PSV net. As one television commentator put it, “Mamma Mia Bessa”.

The spearheading component of Stramaccioni’s team’s success in the tournament, Bessa also found the net in the away fixture against PSV in Eindhoven, this time opening the scoring and setting the tone for Inter to go on and win the penultimate game of the group stage 1-2, securing a place in the quarter final of the highest level youth tournament football.

Once there, Bessa continued his impressive performances by guiding Inter to a win over one of the pre-tournament favourites Sporting Lisbon, providing a pinpoint corner to assist Ibrahima M’Baye to score the only goal of the match and setup a semi-final encounter with Marseille. (At the time of writing the semi final is yet to be played and will take place on 21^st March 2012 )

Not the finished article just yet, some fans still see Bessa as the player most deserving a first team opportunity seeing that it has been his rise to prominence that has provided the catalyst to much of the Primavera side’s success this season. Wearing the number 10 shirt, Bessa is a stereotypical trequartista, possessing composure, fantastic vision and technique while adding wonderfully quick feet and clinical finishing to the mix. If the mercurial number 10 can improve a little more in terms of tactical awareness, it may not be long before we hear “Bossa” being chanted from the Curva Nord.

Another very highly regarded member of the Primavera team is Lorenzo Crisetig, a player who has enjoyed a glowing reputation as the future of Inter’s midfield ever since making a name for himself as the youngest ever player to play for Italy at Under-21 level, debuting at the tender age of just seventeen against Denmark in August 2010.

Since then Crisetig has went on to make his senior debut for Inter in the 2011 Champions League Group Stage, playing against CSKA Moscow where he replaced Cristian Chivu in the closing minutes of the match as Nerazzurri chiefs attempt to slowly acclimatise Crisetig into the next stage of development and test his senior level maturity.

Crisetig is a versatile midfielder with a playing style similar to that of Esteban Cambiasso. Primarily considered a defensive midfielder with good passing range and the ability to close down attacks, he can also play as either a left midfielder or a left back showing competence and maturity in each role. A valuable asset in Stramaccioni’s Inter Primavera side, Crisetig’s importance and overall class have also seen him represent the Azzurri national team at every youth level from Under-16 onwards.

However in the 2012 January transfer window Inter sold half of the promising midfielder’s contract to Parma in exchange for the full rights of Joel Obi’s contract. The deal sees Crisetig remain with Inter’s Primavera outfit for the remainder of the season so that he can help the side in their quest for success in the Nextgen Champions League and domestically with the Primavera title before joining Parma in the summer.

The move is aimed at providing the youngster with a playing environment where he can slowly make his transition from youth football to senior level by maturing at a club famed for its development and trust in youth following the success stories of, to name a few, Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluigi Buffon, Giuseppe Rossi, and most recently Sebastian Giovinco. The Nerazzurri will no doubt see the move for Crisetig as a stepping stone in youngster’s development and while maintaining a fifty percent stake in Crisetig’s contract, Inter are certain to keep a close eye on his performances next year with Parma in the hope that the boy flourishes as expected and realises the talent his potential has promised for so long.

One we likely see on display next year in Serie A, if the youngster performs in accordance with his hype, it’s unlikely Inter will allow the youngster to stay in Parma for too long.

Next up is Alfred Duncan and in him Inter have a combative midfielder in a similar mould to that of his national compatriot Sulley Muntari. Although few Inter fans will recall fond memories of Muntari’s contributions on the pitch, Duncan possess many of the characteristics displayed by Sulley during his more endearing spell in Serie A with Udinese, offering a physical presence on the pitch, coupled with an industrious and tenacious work ethic, not to mention a good eye for goal. This term alone Duncan has rippled the net four occasions across all competitions from midfield.

Clearly Inter fans will want to see Duncan perform much better than Muntari ever did in a Nerazzurri jersey and the young Ghanaian certainly possess the potential to do so, however Duncan still needs to improve his consistency if is to be ready for senior level football. Nevertheless a very athletic individual with great potential as a box to box midfielder, Duncan is definitely one to watch over the coming years.

Samuele Longo is another star of the current Inter Primavera team. A spirited striker with good aerial presence and outstanding self-confidence, Longo currently leads the Primavera team’s scoring charts with ten strikes to his name, including some important goals such as his winning efforts in both the home and away ties of Inter’s Nextgen Champions League group stage games against PSV.

The forward has a very keen eye for goal and a willingness to try his luck from any range to great effect. Some critics do argue though that Longo is not clinical enough in front of goal and that he wastes too many chances, pointing out that his profligacy compared to previous Inter Primavera strikers Aiman Napoli, Simone Dell’Agnello and even Mattia Destro highlights a relatively negative statistic, however Longo remains a defiant character, unfazed by a missed chance and he will continue to search confidently for any opportunity at goal, displaying great strikers beliefs.

Longo is the out-and-out, number one choice centre forward for Inter Primavera and with his strong aerial presence and ambitious attitude to goal resembling that of Giampaolo Pazzini, he offers not only Stramaccioni’s boys at Inter a good attacking outlet but also the Under- 20 Italian national team, just as he exhibited in scoring his first Under-20 international goal against Germany in a 4-3 victory for Italy.

He may not bag as many goals as previous Inter youth strikers, but Longo does seem to grab important strikes, a trait that can make the difference between a decent striker and a top striker. There is still time for Longo to work on the prolific side to his game, but if he continues to contribute goals in the most important fixtures it may well not be long before Longo finds himself playing Serie A football.

Finally, it would be impossible to depict a true representation of the best prospective Nerazzurri youth starlets without providing an honourable mention to a kid who may not necessarily meet the guidelines for our feature in that he only represents Inter at Allievi level, a squad for fifteen to seventeen year olds, rather than Primavera level, however already dubbed the new Roberto Baggio, Lorenzo Tassi is a real gem in the Inter youth set up and deserves a place on any  youth talent feature never mind one focused primarily on Inter Primavera talents.

Signed on a co-ownership deal from Brescia on deadline day of the 2011 summer transfer window, Inter are believed to have spent around £2.5 million to acquire half of the contractual rights to a player who at the time was still only sixteen.

Tassi developed a glowing reputation during his time with the Brescia youth system where his impressive performances alerted the coaching staff that they had unearthed a special talent, one with the potential to become the player of a generation.

Brescia coach at the time, Giuseppe Iachini recognised Tassi’s potential at the age of fifteen and actually called the prodigy up to train with the senior squad during the club’s 2010-11 pre-season training camp, after which Iachini explained, “He is a boy with great quality”.

The plaudits didn’t stop their though, Technical Director Gigi Maifredi was among those most impressed by Tassi and he noted, “Taking everything into account, I consider Tassi to be a child prodigy”. However Club President Gino Corioni perhaps reserved the most lavish praise of Tassi, proclaiming to the media, “He is not normal, he is out of that bracket”. High praise indeed for a kid who at the time was still just fifteen.

Yet Tassi does appear to be dealing with the weight of expectation well and has already featured for Italy at Under-16 , 17 and 21 levels and has unbelievably already even made his Serie A debut, coming on as a substitute for Brescia against Fiorentina during the clubs encounter in the 2010-11 season.

Now with Inter, as mentioned Tassi is a part of the Inter Allievi team, the Under-17 squad where it is hoped he will develop further, building on the already blessed talent’s incredible vision, ball control, dribbling, and genuinely Baggio-esque skill. A trequartista by trade, Tassi also resembles that of another former Brescia youth and Calcio great, Andrea Pirlo in that Tassi’s versatility sees him, when necessary, take up that deep-lying playmaker role made famous by Pirlo.

So far with Inter though, Tassi’s career has been blighted slightly by injuries because of which he has only managed a handful of appearances. Having only recovered recently, Tassi is now expected to feature heavily with the Allievi side with all of the Inter coaching staff watching on with an expectant eye for the boy nicknamed the “Nuovo Il Divin Codino”. Little more can be said about the prodigy until he features more consistently for the Allievi team, however if Tassi displays even half of the ability of his mentor Roberto Baggio then Inter will have a truly special player on their books.

At Inter, all of the above mentioned starlets find themselves at a club not famed for its past trust in youth players, however times are changing at the club and with Patron Massimo Moratti seeking ways to ensure Financial Fair Plays rules are met, these Inter youngsters could well be the future of the Nerazzurri. No –one can guarantee these players success, yet each player has demonstrated already extreme potential and if Inter do finally provide faith in their youth development, these bunch mentioned definitely have the potential to shine on the Serie A stage.

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