Francesco Camarda will experience a strange night tonight, as he returns ‘home’ with the hope of inflicting some damage on his parent and boyhood club.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport write, Camarda is about to return to San Siro and he is tipped to start in the Coppa Italia round of 32 game, the battle of a Milan team ‘where everything works’ and a Lecce side where ‘nothing goes as it should’.
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Past, present and future
Camarda wants to score tonight, but he has come close to netting at La Scala del Calcio before. In the Champions League 11 months ago against Club Brugge he celebrated a goal, enjoyed the roar of the Curva Sud and then it was disallowed for offside.
This first month of the season has shown him that life in Serie A is difficult, tough. Lecce are obviously not Milan, and Camarda is struggling. In his last two games – against Atalanta and Cagliari – Francesco had only one interesting moment, a volley from the edge of the box against Atalanta.
Otherwise his life on the pitch has been about chasing lost causes, dueling with centre-backs twice his size, and at most receiving the odd ball with his back to goal to pass to Kaba, Tete Morente or whoever else. Key passes: very few. Real scoring opportunities: none.
His playing time is declining too: 83 minutes in the opening game of the season, then 45, 19 and 17. It is a slippery slope: game after game, fewer and fewer, while Lecce have fallen to the bottom of the table. Eusebio Di Francesco though offered some reassuring words recently.
However, apprenticeships in the top flight are tough, as some icons can attest. Francesco Totti scored four goals for Roma in the season after he turned 18, Antonio Cassano three for Bari. The journey is complex for everyone.
Francesco seems to be happy at Lecce though. He lives in the city, his parents are often with him and the battle with Stulic is not easy but not impossible to win either. The fans also support him: his No.22, clearly inspired by Brazilian influence (Kakà), was Lecce’s best-selling shirt this summer.
So, patience is needed. There will be tough moments, but there will be plenty of opportunities. San Siro, after that close call against Club Brugge, owes him a favour.
we ruined the kid by sending him to a team fighting relegation. the reason lamine developed the way he did is because he was surrounded by the best and trusted to become the best…
Get real, the kid is half a year away from turning 18, he is hardly destroyed by us on that account. If anything he has already played roughly the same minutes as he did all last season for Milans Serie A team and still plays consistently for Lecce and also recently had a head injury that probably also limited his minutes to some extent.
Would have been better to send him to an attack minded Serie B side, like Inter did with Esposito.
Exactly. The problem with Camarda is that everyone around him thinks he’s Lamin Yamal. The same thing happened with Paloschi at Milan.
I don’t think we will see his true talent until he is age 20-21. I hope he leaves Leece in January.
Wouldn’t it be better if he plays alongside our best team as number 9. Maybe he should have scored now if he’s with us.
He’s struggling to match up to Serie A defenders twice his size.
It would be no different for him at Milan.
Plus, with Pulisic, Nkunku, Leao and Gimenez, he’s never going to get game time.
He’s still just 18, let the lad grow and develop his game.
He needs to play more.
Not even that as he is 17 years old until March.
Should have stayed here. We have few strikers as is. Also EDF is an awful coach. He had a small flash early on but otherwise EDF has been a consistent failure. Also Camarda battling those twice his size? Lol. Kid is quite tall and filling our very well now so this isn’t true. Lastly the only way through is to keep playing and gain comfort. These crappy bench minutes will only harm his growth and lecce kept him home and not allowing him to play the international fixtures which is a crime. So far we are failing him.
Im sure he will never again play for us. Soon or late if he not start scores golas he will same like Colombo,Maldini,Cutrone. Solid player but never star.
If he want be top player he need go to Ajax,Psv or Benfica or some club from France.
Italy not good for young players.If im wrong please tell me who is word class from Italy at last 3 years???
For me, only Donnarumma is italian world class player right now. The rest just good player, but not a star
Casadei once best player went to chelsea, now back to italy. Tonali and calafiori are some stars in arsenal and newcastle right.
I really don’t understand why we didn’t send him to a challenging Serie B team instead, but hopefully we can get him back in Jan if we need to – he’d definitely have gotten minutes in our team in the last few games.