A Preview of Juve’s Future (ManYoo, Chelsea, and especially Arsenal banned from reading)

By: agiamba | November 15th, 2009

So in the doldrums otherwise known as the international break, it allows for some posts unrelated to current topics. In the past, I’ve done some posts on Juventus Legends, something I’d really like to restart sometime in the new future, there are plenty to be profiled. But today, instead of looking at the past, we look to the future. Another words, who are the stars in the Juve Primavera? (Arsene, I know you’re still reading. Seriously, stop.) And what chance do they have of graduating to the senior team and becoming an integral part?

PORTIERI- Every 3-4 years we seem to produce a good keeper, Antonio Mirante currently at Parma being the most recent one. We have one young promising keeper, but given the need for only one #1, obviously we won’t producing large numbers every year.

Carlo Pinsoglio: Many of you have seen his name on the squad sheet in recent games, and wondered, who is this guy? He is the Primavera #1, at age 19, he is in his 10th season at the club. First of all, he is tall: 6′4″, or 1.92meters for you crazy metric folk. And like Buffon, he is generally noticed for his fine reactions, for a guy of his size. He’s been a part of the Italy U-21 setup for a bit, but he hasn’t started. This season, he is training with Buffon often, and frequently is called up with the senior team. In his place in the Primavera sometimes is young Antonio Piccolo, who 2 seasons ago joined our Primavera from the Torino primavera. You may recognize his name, from his older brother, Felice Piccolo.
Chance of future with Juventus? Slim- Obviously, there is Gigi standing in his way, and while Gigi is not exactly Primavera-age himself, he’s easily got 4-5 years in him. As for that reason, I see Pinsoglio playing backup and then being sold, sort of like Mirante. One of the better keepers produced by our Primavera recently though.

DIFENSORI- Defense takes quite a bit of maturity, so players usually arrive late to the Primavera. We’ve churned out pretty good results recently- De Ceglie and Ariaudo of note. Below are the two who may join them someday soon in the Juventus first team.
Abdoulaye Bamba: From the Ivory Coast, the 19-year old is in his 9th season with the Juventus youth setup, and 3rd as a Primavera. He plays as a fullback, and his noted attributes are primarily his pace along the wing. For this season, sometimes he plays as winger in midfield.
Chance of future with Juventus? Moderate- An explosive fullback? Not bad, but I’m sure like all young wingbacks, his defending has a bit to be desired. I wouldn’t mind giving him a shot in the Coppa games, given our fullback situation, but if he ends up starring at Juve, he will likely go the De Ceglie route and go out on loan or co-ownership first.

Andrea De Paola: Joined us from Totti’s old club, Cisco Roma in January 2008 and formed a solid partnership with Lorenzo Ariaudo in the Viarreggio tournament and last years Primavera success. He just turned 19 a month ago. He seems like an old school center-back- strong, powerful in the air, but not necessarily speedy. Like Chiellini, he is a good goal threat on set pieces up front.
Chance of future with Juventus? Moderate- Like Bamba, he has the fortune of a weak position to come in, Cannavaro and Legrottaglie won’t last forever. This season he will finish with the Primavera, next season he may go out on loan. I think he’s very promising.

CENTROCAMPISTI- Without a doubt, this is the strong point of the Primavera the last few years. Talents like Marchisio and Giovinco have made it to the first team, and there have been other that have moved on to new pastures. The Primavera is bursting with talent.

Luca Marrone: You all probably know him, as he has already played a few minutes this season for the Primavera team. Marrone, 19 years old, was born-and-bred in Turin, and has been part of the Juventus youth academy all his life. A physical central midfielder with plenty of energy, he can sort of be compared to Nocerino or Marchisio. Definitely someone to watch for the future.
Chance of future with Juventus? Strong- Ferrara has already given him two games, he’s 19, and it’s early in the season. I liked his energy and presence in midfield, and his history in Turin and Juventus is definitely a plus. He’s got a lot to learn, but when he’s in midfield he doesn’t go absent like Poulsen or Tiago sometime do.

Fausto Rossi: Pacey, technically gifted, with a good eye for a pass, Rossi came to everyone’s attention in Summer 2008 in the Trofeo Berlusconi with great performances against Inter and Milan, at age 17. He’s 18 now, so he’s got plenty of time left in the Primavera if Juventus chooses so. Like Marrone, he is from Turin and has been in the Juventus Primavera his whole career.
Chance of future with Juventus? Strong- People have been buzzing about him since his performance last summer, and unfortunately this preseason he was injured. One of the crown jewels of the Primavera right now, and I’d love to see Ferrara give him a chance, along with Esposito. They’d fit perfectly in a 4-2-3-1 on the outside.

Simone Esposito: Like Marrone and Rossi, he is from Turin and has spent his entire youth career (save the 1st year) at Juventus. He is more of a natural winger than Rossi, less pacey, but technically gifted. He is noted for both his crossing ability as well as his goalscoring ability. This is his third season in the Primavera. Like Rossi, I hope he gets some Coppa time.
Chance of future with Juventus? Moderate-

Giuseppe Giovinco: Very similar to his older brother, SuperSeba, in that he is technically gifted and eager to take shots on goal. Like Seba, Marrone, Rossi, and Esposito, he is from Turin and has spent his entire career with Juve thus far. He just turned 19, and has a fair amount of potential. The differences with Giovinco are promising, he is more physically built and slightly taller. Perhaps, this means he could stay on the ball a bit better than his older brother. Chelsea was rumored to be attempting to poach him last September, but I believe he chose to sign a contract with the club.
Chance of future with Juventus? Moderate- Competition for attacking midfield or winger spots with Rossi, Esposito, SuperSeba, Diego, Camoranesi, and perhaps Palladino should he return. Probably depends on how well he does when out on loan.

Filippo Boniperti and Paolo Ferrara: It’s hard to know anything about them, because they are both very young, but I mentioned them because of their name. Boniperti, of course, is the grandson of the great Giampiero Boniperti. He is a central midfield that is very technically gifted, as Juventus.com says, he is quite “natural” in his ability. Paolo Ferrara, like his dad, plays as a defender and has gotten some time in the Primavera even though he is only 16.
Chance of future with Juventus? Unknown- Far too early to tell.

ATTACCANTI- We have a few solid strikers that have come through, and we have a few good ones now. Recently we have produced Pasquato, Daud, Palladino, etc.

Ciro Immobile: Unlike some of the others profiled, he is not from Turin, nor has he been part of the Juventus set up for a while. We signed him from his local club Sorrento, and he’s done excellent since arriving. He scored 5 goals in the Torneo di Viarreggio, with 2 in the final. A strong center-forward who is quite capable in the air, similar to Vincenzo Iaquinta if I had to compare him to a current squad player.
Chance of future with Juventus? Strong- He made his debut last season, and is one of the more recent talked about Primavera forwards of recent years.

Alberto Libertazzi: You probably haven’t heard his name before, and for good reason. He is the youngest player in the Juventus Primavera team. He is also from Torino, and has spent his entire career in bianconero. Physically strong and good in the air, he is also good at holding play up. He’s played in most Italian youth teams in some capacity.
Chance of future with Juventus? Slim Maybe it’s harsh to write him off, but I feel with forwards that Immobile is more capable, and it will be very hard for him to break in a first team. I think forwards are more likely to be bought than brought up through the academy.

Hope you enjoyed this…..if you have any questions or comments, as always, post them below!

Some Related Juventus Posts:

Category: Team News

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MJ

@alessio,
MY friend has family who live in turin and know daud's family how is he doing though? what position is he though behind the strike? attacking mid? second striker? He hasn't scored any goals yet for crotone right?
Anthony

Earlier you mentioned that in the past only Giovinco would have gotten a shot with the first team but would have then been shipped out. I'm not so sure though. I think Marchisio showed himself to be the most mature and complete for his age. I think he would have gotten some opportunities. And its normal for these players to be loaned out. I believe they would have eventually returned to base though....just maybe not as quickly as they did.
Anthony

Alessio, what I thought Galloppa meant about Cassano was that Lippi might not be calling him because of his past mistakes. So I think he means Cassano is paying for his past which would be his own fault.

And in the quote I read, he said that Amauri is a good player but he is Brazilian and not Italian. He thinks that bringing in a naturalized Italian can start a chain reaction which would result in other naturalized Italians being called up.
agiamba

Good news: Sissoko, Marchisio, and Zebina are back to training a bit with the group. Not full training yet, but they are taking part in exercises with the group. Cannavaro and Buffon are back with the group now.
Papai

star number 3 is coming! :)
agiamba

"There is too much talk about Cassano. If he is not picked for Italy then that's his own fault," Galloppa told the press in Cesena.

Haha, what an idiot. But he one-ups himself.

"Amauri is a great player. His inclusion in the Italy squad could spark off a chain reaction."

So no Cassano, yes Amauri...wow.
agiamba

Ekdal is doing quite well at Siena, one of the brighter points of their team in our boring 1-0 win over them, he was the one who forced Buffon into a good save. He's been playing about 1/2 the games as a starter, the rest he subs on for. He's also displayed an impressive capability of passing, in one or two matches Siena has played him more in a Pirlo-style regista position, usually he plays as a center-mid or attacking-mid. A good display for his first 3 months ever really as a professional, let's hope he really turns it on in the 2nd half of the season like Gio and Marchisio did at Empoli.

I find it highly amusing, by the way, that as we are talking about the Primavera and who may or may not make it to the first team, the Inter Offside is an apologetic rationalization of why it's utterly unimportant to have anyone from the same country at your club, much less your same city.
j

i think to produce a few youngsters for the first team is not that hard, true you need a lot of patience, development, etc, but it's possible, the question is the quantity and quality. but to produce superstars, it's almost impossible, i can only remember rooney, messi who burst into the football scene as the last few wonderkid, maybe pato can be considered too
Sofia

loved the rossi video at the end

i really think that rossi is a good player and that he has a future with the team. i also hope to see palladino back and hopefully we will have the Giovinco bros on the pitch, as well as Ferrera Jr.
Marco

Bravo Alessio -

The future looks promising. Ekdal - Immobile - Marrone and Fatuso all look very promising. We need to keep our primevera players - sign them and then loan them out for two years with a strategy to utilize them when they are prime.

Forza Juve
sally

ekdal is apparently doing well. must say i was v impressed with immobile when he came on though
Weston (@wpazzurri)

what do you know about albin ekdal?
alex

immobile is another player who should be on the napoli primavera! best of luck to him we have a youngster going by the name of camilo ciano whos meant to be a young stud

even though we were in serie c2 ive always wondered why so many players were never even a part of the primavera like bocchetti, criscito, nocerino, palladino...
Andy

Great post alessio. I was hoping we'd see something like this during the international break.
agiamba

Sam, you weren't the only one. Some kids come on and look timid, Immobile came close to scoring with only a few minutes. I have high hopes for that kid...he could be a gun.
Nnahoj

Libertazzi was part of the U-17 team that played in Nigeria recently. The odd thing about that U-17 squad was that Inter had the most number of players on it - and no, I'm not talking about the Argentine squad...the Italian one.

Nice post, btw.
agiamba

Sally, good eye. That is indeed from the CYC. I posted a bit above in the comments section about how Castiglia, Daud, and Pasquato are doing.

J, in the past we have always churned out good talent, but very little of it had any hope of playing in the first team. Tomasso Rocchi, Mattia Cassani, etc, were in our Primavera. (So was, er, Simone Loria) Post-Calciopoli the management committed to the youth team more, they spent a lot more money and the general idea is to bring more of them in the first team. We have Marchisio, De Ceglie, and Giovinco....in the past only Gio would have gotten a shot at the first team, and then shipped out.
ned lowe

@papai: i saw iago in preseason n he looked very good...i don't think he lacks the quality to play for us.yes there is competition in hsi position, but the kid is good
sally

and what about castiglia and ayub daud ?
sally

ha, the first photo was taken during the CYC tournament in Malaysia! actually met the whole primavera squad then - wasn't too much of a different team

speaking of how is pasquato doing at empoli (if i remember correctly)
Papai

I think Marrone, Rossi and Immobile are the ones to watch out for. Yago.. its difficult to imagine him playing because we already have Diego and Seba. Havent seen Daud play yet.

Thanks for the nice and very informative write up.

oh, and Arsene, Thats karma for trying to poach Seba!
Pablo

Are those zebra ears on the GK's head?
j

is juventus famous for their academy? i think all italian teams pretty much produce a similar number of youngsters that make it to the first team.

ajax used to have a brillant youth academy that constanly churns out stars during the 90s i believe, and of course arsenal's arsene who poached many of the world's talent.
Daniel

Juve is awesome at creating players with psycho faces. Marchisio is at the first team, and Esposito is trying to. nice post.
Juventus Shirts

Great post it is good t get to know about more of the youngsters at the club
HolyMann

i assume so Sam....He's a monster, took away Cannavaro's Euro 2008....You got to love him :)
Sam

Is this because of what he did to Van persie?
6unn3ers

fuck chiellini !!
HolyMann

very nice write up Alessio....its gong to be interesting to see which of the above players make it into Juve - or anyother big team
DJP

I love Immobile more and more every time I see him play. Kid has so much talent. He's not exactly a huge forward, but he does seem to be built pretty darn well. Same goes for Marrone. I'm really hoping he gets a good run in the Coppa games.

"Ps- We have this great young fullback named Cristian Molinaro you should look at."

Now that is funny.
agiamba

Ivo, I've caught some of these guys playing, principally in the Champions Youth Cup and the Viareggio tournament, and of course when called up to the first team. Kirev was on loan with Grasshoppers but right now he's just training with the first team, I'm not entirely sure why we didn't try and get him a loan move. He's too old for the Primavera.

Daud and Yago should (sort of) be up there, in that they both could still be playing for the Primavera, Daud is 19 and Yago is 18. Daud is doing ok, he's played quite a bit but hasn't gotten a goal yet. Yago's situation makes me mad, last weekend he played with Bari's primavera. We didn't send him on loan to play primavera, he can do that here.

Castiglia is at Crotone in what used to be Serie C1, he's only 20 so we'll see how that goes. If it goes well, he could move to Serie B next season. He's a good passer of the ball, but that requires a team sort of to build their midfield around him, something they probably won't do for a player who's only on loan. Pasquato, you may remember as well. Like Castiglia, he was sent on loan around 18-19, and he's had an ok time. We sent him to Empoli, he had 34 appearances but only 1 goal...had a few assists though and generally looked lively. This summer we kept him on loan at Empoli.
Ivo

Really enjoyed the post, I love youth talent and my teams in FM are always less than 26 avg age. Have you watched these guys play? I am particularly interested in learning how well Bamba and Rossi play. Any idea on how I can catch a game or something from the Primavera?

Btw, Nedved si ritorna. Finalmente!
Sam

Mario Kirev i think is on loan to Grasshopper, not sure but.
Sam

good one!

I was very impresed by Fausto Rossi in last seasons friendlies, and Ciro Immobile, from what i saw in Atalanta, those few minutes impressed me.

I love Ayub Daud, he is damn good! I wonder how he's going at the moment. Luca Castiglia was ment to be another talent, an MC with good passing and cretivity, hows he going?
SIR ALEX

A couple 16-year-old's in this group? Let's get poachin!
Anthony

Very well done, Alessio. I think we definitely have some good players to keep an eye on in the primavera. I agree that the midfield definitely looks the most promising. And I'm glad that Paolo Ferrara plays in the Juventus youth team rather than the Napoli one. He's being raised as a Juventino.

I was also wondering if you know anything about Mario Kirev. I don't know if he's technically part of the first team as fourth choice keeper or if he plays for the primavera at all. Any idea?
agiamba

Damn you voyeur!!!

Ps- We have this great young fullback named Cristian Molinaro you should look at.
ARSENE WENGER

Thank you for the tips. I have been watching these guys for years and will be coming down to Turin to offer Ciro Immobile a contract.