Milan, Camarda ready to debut with Fiorentina: who he is

Everyone will be there this evening in the stands at San Siro. Mother Federica, father Manuel and uncle Luca: the entire Camarda family will take sides, and God forbid, history is knocking on the door. If then, during Milan-Fiorentina, the fourth official’s board lights up with the number 73, then Stefano Pioli will have opened that door: in a few hours Francesco Camarda, shirt number 73 and aged 15, could become the youngest debutant in the history of Serie A. “Talent has no age and he has talent – said yesterday Pioli, who will call up Abate’s Primavera baby bomber for the first time against the Viola -. Destiny sometimes creates certain opportunities for you, to Francesco it happened now. He is ready to give us a hand if needed, we will have to be good at accompanying him: he has a great future, for sure, but he is a very young boy…”.

milan school

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Young, yes, very young: Camarda regularly alternates training and matches for the Rossoneri with school. Born in Milan (with half Apulian and half Campania origins), he is from the Bruzzano district, the northern outskirts of the city. A huge AC Milan fan, he attends linguistic high school – he is one of the few in the youth team not to attend a sports high school – and manages to combine books and football with great success: in middle school he had very high grades on his report card, and on the pitch he does even better. He is credited with an important physical structure for his age (he is 185 centimeters tall and has practiced boxing and kickboxing in his free time) and an incredible instinct for scoring: he has scored at least 500 since he started playing. Francesco’s story is difficult to chase, because the boy is constantly ahead of his time. Always with the older players, as in the Rossoneri Primavera and in the Italy Under 17s, as in the first team now.

behind the net

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Like all stories, however, Camarda’s also has a beginning: the first chapter dates back to (just) 9 years ago. L’Afforese, a club in the northern area of ​​Milan, was his first “home”. Piero Colangelo, at the time responsible for the basic activity of Afforese, was the first to have brought Francesco onto a green pitch. “Our cousin, who was three years older, trained with us. On the sidelines, behind the net, there were Mrs. Federica, Francesco’s mother, and the little boy. I noticed that Camarda was looking towards the pitch and kicking the net, without the ball. I approached and said: ‘Why don’t we let him onto the pitch so he can kick a real ball…?’. I was astonished: I’ve never seen a miniature footballer at work. Francesco was more smaller than all the others, but he did the same exercises, even better. In 5-6 months Milan would arrive.” Where they tried him as a defender but he discarded his opponents and went on to score. Today Colangelo coaches at Lombardia Uno: “The students of 2008, his… peers. I remember that time when we went to Vismara and I found him as my opponent. I told him: ‘Francesco, don’t do too much damage…’. It ended 5-0 for them, with 4 goals from Camarda.”

future

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The rest is very recent history: Camarda won a championship with the Rossoneri Under 15s in 2022, shortly after the title won by Pioli and his team. Then the Primavera, his debut in the Youth League, the goals against Newcastle and the beautiful overhead kick against PSG, which earned him compliments from Leao. Colangelo will also be at the stadium tonight: “And how could I miss it? Pioli said that he has a great future and I agree. One thousand percent”