Tomorrow night, Francesco Camarda could well break the record and become the youngest ever player to take to the field in a Serie A game.
La Gazzetta dello Sport (as seen below) writes that Camarda will be called up for the game at San Siro and at the age of 15 he could well find himself sharing a pitch with Christian Pulisic, Theo Hernandez, Mike Maignan, Fikayo Tomori at al.
He will start on the bench but given that Luka Jovic is the only other option at the moment, Camarda has a real chance of coming on even for the last part of the match. At 15 years, 8 months and 15 days he would become the youngest ever Serie A debutant.
The list is topped by Wisdom Amey of Bologna who made his debut at 15 years, 9 months and one day back in 2021. Sinisa Mihajlovic threw him into the mix at the last minute of Bologna-Genoa, then Amey went to school the next day and had to wait a year to play another match in Serie A.
Camarda seems to be one of those players predestined for the top having scored over 500 goals in Milan’s youth teams, and he hopes to follow the path traced by the other greats of Italian football who were trusted so young.
Gianni Rivera played his first league game at 15 years, 9 months and 15 days with Alessandria, before going on to win major honours with Milan and a Ballon d’Or. Paolo Maldini’s first appearance came at 16 years, 6 months and 25 days.
With Camarda it would be different. They say that Francesco lives for goals and if he were to do the unthinkable and score, another record would be broken. Roma player Amedeo Amadei, the youngest scorer in the history of Serie A, scored his first goal on 9 May 1937 at 15 years, 9 months and 13 days.
The biggest challenge to this point for the teenager has been playing in the UEFA Youth League, where he has scored three in as many matches, complete with a brace on his debut against Newcastle, and a goal against PSG.
On Tuesday afternoon Borussia Dortmund will arrive at the PUMA House of Football, one of the clubs that have set their sights on him. In fact, on March 10, Camarda will turn 16 and will be able to sign his first professional contract, lasting no more than three years.
In 2022, shortly after having celebrated the Scudetto of the senior team, Camarda won the U15 league title and revealed that his dream was to ‘make his debut in Serie A with Milan’. In that final they beat Fiorentina 1-0, and there are no prizes for guessing who scored the winner.
Cometh the hour….