APPIANO GENTILE – This evening's guest on InterNos was Nerazzurri academy director Roberto Samaden, who took his turn answering questions from fans on the programme broadcast by Inter Channel.
"Our task is to make sure our youngsters are ready to step into the first team. Roberto Mancini and Piero Ausilio are hugely talented at assessing these players based on their requirements. Some of the older lads in the Primavera are probably in the best position to make the leap, like Ionut Radu, Fabio Della Giovanna, Senna Miangue and Jose Correia. Even the young pup of the Primavera Andrea Pinamonti might be able to cope."
One topic that kept cropping up was B teams and reforming the U19 championship: "Being able to jump between youth academy and first team is very important, especially for the big teams. I hope this project involving B teams can get under way soon and the format for the Primavera league can be revised."
As for which option he preferred – B teams or a new Primavera league – Samaden had this to say: "A bit of both. You mirror the matches involving first teams or, in other words, set up a league-system with promotions and relegations. That way even a Lega Pro club could win the Primavera championship."
A lot of questions naturally concerned how a young player is picked out: "We do a lot of work at grassroots level, where we see really young boys coming in from the province or region. When you widen that to the whole country, you need to be clever and a tad fortunate to have a network like the Inter Grassroots Program, which allows us to monitor all of Italy. From 16 years old onwards, we start taking Europe into account and here as well we have an extremely good scouting department."
So much talent has passed through the youth academy, but many youngsters were unlucky and held back by injury: "Luca Tremolada comes to mind. He had limitless ability but was never able to express himself in senior football."
The head of Inter's youth academy paused to reflect on the Primavera's Viareggio Cup campaign, which came to an end in the semi-finals.
"Ignoring the first 20 minutes of the semi-final against Palermo, we were extremely pleased. We were missing five international players and it was an opportunity to allow some guys from the U18 side a chance to shine."
Next up was a question on who has surprised him the most out of everyone who has been called up into the first team. "I was taken aback by how quickly a lad we scouted through the youth-team network – Rey Manaj – was brought into the first team. We had our eyes on him a lot over recent years. Roberto Mancini did well here: he's able to recognise the qualities of these kind of players."
Finally, Samaden had a word of advice for anyone who dreams of becoming a top player: "Continue to allow your dream to grow in the right way by enjoying yourselves. Like every dream, becoming a footballer is tough to achieve. Personally I always had other dreams as well: I finished my studies and graduated. Right up until the moment when the dream is just about to come true, you should have other irons in the fire in order to keep yourself well grounded."
