Wonderkids are the main interest in most of the big teams right now, as their main interest (besides competing, obviously) is to make their squads younger and younger while owning the best prospects to either stay as a contender for several years or make the most of them on a millionaire transaction.
So it’s only natural to see more and more young lads being scouted by the greatest teams across Europe, with fierce bidding wars and absurdly overpricing youngsters that may actually never see a single minute in their first team, but that they might just be pretty good and they just can’t allow their rivals to own them either.
So, a new prospect has caught the attention of several great clubs, and he’s currently in the spotlight as one of the main transfer targets for Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea for either the winter or the summer windows, Atalanta’s great defender Mattia Caldara.
Manchester United is always being linked with outstanding youngsters, so there aren’t any news there; while Arsenal also likes to develop youngsters and it’s keen to bring some fresh blood for the defensive side of the pitch. And, when it comes to prospects, you know Abramovich and his team are watching, while the fact that Antonio Conte’s running the team now makes the arrival of several Italians very likely for the blues. So, let’s take a look at Mattia and what he can bring to the table.
Mattia Caldara is a 22-year-old centre-back from Bergamo, Italy, that has spent most of his career playing with the minor teams of Atalanta with a couple of short loan spells, and after some very good performances, he has even earned the right to play for his Under 21 Italian national team.
So, the youngster has become one of the main guys for Atalanta right now, featuring in 7 Serie A matches while netting 3 scores, some pretty decent numbers considering how far from the opposite box this guy is supposed to be.
Caldara has a very well developed body for a guy of his age, and plays on a very physical, yet clean way, earning only one yellow card so far this season despite averaging over 3.5 tackles, 2.7 interceptions, 1 foul and 4.4 clearances per game.
His aerial game is also pretty good, winning most of his duels against veteran scorers and the best strikers on the Serie A, and his timing to intercept opposing crosses and key passes are completely outstanding.
However, he’s not a very good passer and sometimes struggles to hold on to the ball, but he’s not mistake prone and often makes the easy and smart decision when he has the ball on his feet.
It’s easy to see why this guy is being scouted by three of the most important teams of the United Kingdom, and it’s very likely that we see this guy landing in England at some point during the next year, as he’s a very talented youngster with a bright future ahead of him.
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