The young Matarrese was small and thin, growing up he became a giant with educated feet and a brain that thinks to play outside the box and before others. Will he be the future of Inter?
Straight from the vocabulary of observers: Thomas Matarrese is a second semester (even late) and ‘late’. Translated: he was born in the second half of the year (15 December 2009, like Leoni and Bartesaghi) and while his precocious companions were putting on centimeters and muscles, he observed them and repeated to himself: “My time will come too”. Well, here it is. Late but not too late, given that this year he has put Inter’s U17s on his shoulders, Mister Handanovic likes him a lot and in short, in a place like the Nerazzurri it’s not exactly everyone’s stuff.
How Matarrese plays
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Straight from the vocabulary of observers: Thomas Matarrese is a second semester (even late) and ‘late’. Translated: he was born in the second half of the year (15 December 2009, like Leoni and Bartesaghi) and while his precocious companions were putting on centimeters and muscles, he observed them and repeated to himself: “My time will come too”. Well, here it is. Late but not too late, given that this year he has put Inter’s U17s on his shoulders, Mister Handanovic likes him a lot and in short, in a place like the Nerazzurri it’s not exactly everyone’s stuff. How Matarrese plays A couple of numbers straight away. Little Thomas no longer exists, today he is almost 190 centimetres, he is putting on weight and therefore he is the one who intimidates his opponents. He’s grown big, but he continues to do what he wants with the ball and that’s the beauty of it. Before he was a sort of Seba Giovinco, the classic atomic ant who, if he decided to leave you on the spot, would succeed on time. Today he is a giant with educated feet and a brain that thinks of playing outside the box and before the others, a potential box-to-box only more offensive who gives his best in the last thirty metres. In that area of the pitch he knows how to do everything: he plays from the bank, he attacks deep, he hits his head well, if he has to start from the outside and converge he does it, he shoots with two feet and often finds the goal. Handanovic makes him play as seven, in the past he played ten and the future can rhyme with both nine and eleven. Flexibility is okay, but there is also the other side of the coin and here the ball passes to Inter: today he knows how to do many things and plays everywhere, but the next step must be to find him a fixed position and go all in on that.
Those dribbles with Rio Ferdinand..
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Other numbers. This year he has scored five goals in ten games, practically one every two. If he were to continue at this rate, he would end the year by breaking the record of eleven goals from the 2023-24 season. By the way, we could already guess that that season would go great in August during the Scudetto Cup, a youth football tournament in Pescara. Inter-Roma 4-3, hat-trick from Thomas Matarrese: the first goal from a penalty, the second finding the top corner after having freed himself from a defender with a touch of his sole, the third returning inside and putting the goalkeeper on his post. The other highlight of his short career dates back to just a year ago: San Siro, Champions League night, Inter-Arsenal. Engaged on the sidelines in the role of ball boy, Matarrese entertained the public during the interval by dribbling with Rio Ferdinand, correspondent for an English broadcaster. Well, the Nerazzurri baby didn’t disfigure himself and in the end he received compliments from the former United defender: first the “high five”, then a nice hug that he will hardly forget. All of which was promptly taken from the stands and went viral on Instagram, where Thomas (a thousand followers and a strictly private account) chose to summarize his football faith with one word: Inter.
when dad Beppe Gol was the star with Cervia
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Do you remember Campioni – the dream? The Italia 1 reality show broadcast between 2004 and 2006? Passed down to Gen Z thanks to Mister Ciccio Graziani’s outbursts that are still viral on every social network? Thomas’s father, Giuseppe, known to all as Beppe-Gol, was Cervia’s striker for a couple of months. “I didn’t stay until the end due to the birth of Nicolò, Thomas’ first son and older brother. But I have wonderful memories, it was an experience that I will carry with me forever. And Mister Graziani was crazy about me”, says Beppe-Gol. For the rest, Matarrese senior enjoyed a more than decent career between Serie D and C, scoring around 200 goals. Not bad, in short. “But Thomas is predestined: I’m sure he will become stronger than me,” swears father Giuseppe. Again: “At his age I also played in the youth sector of Inter but there is really no comparison, compared to what I was he is really out of category. I can say that I was good, but I didn’t have the background that he has.” Background read twelve years of Inter. He has been playing for the Nerazzurri since 2013 and owes it to an intuition of Roberto Dell’Acqua, who discovered him during a tournament in Seregno and took him to Interello. He was just a youngster, today he has grown into the U17s and is already partly seeing the Primavera. For now it’s a goal, by the end of the season who knows. Meanwhile, another satisfaction has been achieved in the Italy shirt: he is also among the 60 born in 2009 chosen by coach Franceschini for the Group Tournament. It is the second call-up in blue, the first this season and probably not even the last. Two notes on the boy. He studies Finance and Marketing with good results, admires Cristiano Ronaldo and devours football from morning to night: videos on YouTube, matches on television. All aimed at a dream called San Siro: for now he has had to settle for four dribbles with Ferdinand, the next step is to do the same but inside the green rectangle. He’ll try. And dad Beppe-Gol, obviously, will be rooting for him..
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