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If just over a year ago someone had told Costantino Favasuli that he would go from being a promising young Catanzaro player in Serie B to where he is today, he probably would not have believed them. In just a few months, the tireless winger became a key player for the Italy U21 side, made his Italy debut last June and, following his move to Napoli this summer, also made his Serie A and Champions League debuts. It sounds like a fairytale, but is in fact a reality: the story of a young player who dreams big and works even harder.
BALDINI, THE KEY. “Football is beautiful because you never know what can happen,” Favasuli said today during his press conference at the CPO in Tirrenia, where the U21 side are on camp, preparing for their final two European Championship qualifiers. “Sometimes you have dreams that you think are out of reach, but if you give everything you have and try to improve day after day, those dreams can come true. For me, this is a starting point. I want to keep doing more and more.” Two words stand out in his journey. The first is Catanzaro: “If I’m here, it’s also thanks to them. I’m not the only one: Cisse and Liberali are here with me, and that means we must have done something good. We carry so many wonderful memories with us that helped us grow both as people and as footballers.” The second ‘key’ figure can only be Baldini: “He is an incredibly important, unique person. No one else would have taken us all into the senior national team in June, but he believes in us so much that he would do anything for us. Baldini is our strength. Every time he speaks, I’m left speechless because you take on board his words, which shape our dreams. He is an incredible man as well as a fantastic coach.”
YOUNG PLAYERS AND KAYODE. The U21 campaign and the ‘showcase’ provided by the two friendlies against Luxembourg and Greece in June have also highlighted the quality of young Italian players. “We can feel that things are starting to change. The statistics also show that many more young players are getting game time at the start of this season. Baldini was the first to show that courage, and it wasn’t a given because in June we were still playing two important matches for the rankings. There are young Italian players and they are good enough; they just need to be given the chance to play, both in Serie A and Serie B.” Some of these young players have also been called up by Mancini, including Michael Kayode, who mentioned Favasuli at a press conference in Coverciano yesterday as one of the ‘special’ people who wrote to him after his call-up. “He is one of my best friends,” the Napoli winger concluded, “and we speak almost all the time. I’m really happy about his call-up. He deserved it and I’m delighted for him. He’s having an outstanding season, just as he did a year ago in the Premier League, and I wish him all the best. I’m sure he’ll do great things with Italy too.”
THE SQUAD LIST
Goalkeepers: Giovanni Daffara (Parma), Diego Mascardi (Torino), Lorenzo Palmisani (Frosinone);
Defenders: Davide Bartesaghi (AC Milan), Gabriele Calvani (Frosinone), Fabio Chiarodia (Borussia M’Gladbach), Pietro Comuzzo (Torino), Costantino Favasuli (Napoli), Niccolò Fortini (Torino), Emanuele Lulli (Roma), Brando Moruzzi (Avellino), Luca Reggiani (Borussia Dortmund);
Midfielders: Tommaso Berti (Cremonese), Matteo Cichella (Frosinone), Giacomo Faticanti (Avellino), Mattia Liberali (Como), Luca Lipani (Sassuolo), Cher Ndour (Fiorentina), Niccolò Pisilli (Roma);
Forwards: Francesco Camarda (AC Milan), Luigi Cherubini (Benevento), Alphadjo Cisse (AC Milan), Seydou Fini (Frosinone), Luca Koleosho (Paris), Antonio Raimondo
