From goals for the Nerazzurri to his first goal with Italy, everyone is crazy about the young striker: the club has already refused 50 million and is preparing to double his salary
From Seattle to Tallinn, the world has already learned the winning equation: the big boy with the giant physique and the baby face first scores a goal, then shows his muscles and everyone feels stronger. Gattuso’s national team, which is determinedly racing towards the playoffs for the American World Cup, but above all Inter, which in a World Cup in the United States has raised the curtain on the family jewel with an assured future and is proudly reaping the fruits: Pio Esposito from Castellammare di Stabia, aged 20, is the treasure that everyone would like to have but only enjoys it in the Nerazzurri. If everything goes as hoped, the whole of Italy will join the party in a handful of months, after in the meantime, perhaps, Inter will have secured their prized piece: for the club, Pio’s talent is priceless and, if the growth continues as in these first months, the salary could also rise upwards.
capital
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With Pio in the engine, the Viale della Liberazione club not only feels stronger but also richer, in every sense. Because the talent raised on bread and Inter is a continuous climb in the flesh: every match a floor higher, every ball thrown into a front page photo. Esposito printed the last one in the cold of Tallinn: Kean, a key player in Gattuso’s attack, raises the white flag shortly after breaking the deadlock against Estonia, Pio enters, moves with the wisdom of a thirty-year-old center forward and scores with a true 9-pointer. Scenes already seen in the Nerazzurri, from the first center to his debut as a starter against River Plate last 26 June – when he was still 19 years old – up to his first goal in Serie A, in Cagliari, as a substitute just like the other evening in Estonia. Pio is Inter’s human capital, he is the Nerazzurri who best of all embodies the traits of the ideal profile for the new Oaktree course because he is young, has enormous margins for growth and a value that can rise dramatically in the space of a few months. Especially if the boy keeps up the pace of these early days with the Nerazzurri: goals, of course, but also generous movements, intelligent plays for his teammates and thousands of meters scored – against Ajax in the Champions League, on his debut as a starter this season, there were 11,570, more than all the other players on the pitch – thanks to that spirit of sacrifice that Chivu asks of his team from the first day of work at Appiano. And so, the golden child’s run is surprising only up to a certain point, because Esposito reciprocates his coach’s trust with performances on par with the big names, as if he were a veteran who has been frequenting the Inter locker room for years. It is no coincidence that Chivu soon elevated his status, from a bet to deputy Lautaro or deputy Thuram, take your pick because it makes no difference: Pio can play alongside the captain or Marcus and his performance will not drop one iota.
Retouching
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In this story, Inter have had great merit which they have always handled in the right way: they took a long view on Pio and moved accordingly. From 2014, when he got his hands on the youngest of the three brothers born a stone’s throw from Naples and raised in Brescia – also investing in the other two, Salvatore and Sebastiano, now at Spezia and Cagliari respectively – until the last renewal signed last spring, after the two-year loan at Spezia. Having returned to the parent company, Pio signed a contract until 2030 and his salary rose from the approximately 300 thousand euros received previously (expiring in 2027) to the current one million. Beppe Marotta and Piero Ausilio, president and sporting director of the Nerazzurri, have put together a deal but it is logical to hypothesize that club and player in the future, perhaps at the end of this season, could sit down to discuss the terms of the agreement again: the salary could double or slightly more, let’s say between 2 and 2.5 million.
Unsellable
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Also because Esposito’s potential must be armored as is customary these days with young bombers of his size: his name has rightly ended up in the notebook of the big names in half of Europe and framing him with a “fixed” evaluation is an almost impossible undertaking, given his constantly changing performance. For a reference parameter, then, it is worth rewinding the tape and going back a few months: this summer Inter rejected offers of 50 million for Pio, as well as not even having taken into consideration the hypothesis of an exchange on par with Lookman. More indecent proposals will arrive, you can bet on it, but one thing is certain: if Esposito was unsellable in August, he is even more so today. Inter certainly won’t change their minds now that the young Pio has grown up.
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