The Italian peninsula is home to a plethora of perduring, palatial icons. These include the Colosseum, Sistine Chapel, Pantheon, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Trevi Fountain, La Scala Opera House, Ruins of Pompeii and an abundant portion of the greatest full-backs in football history, including Giacinto Facchetti, Antonio Cabrini, Giuseppe Bergomi and Paolo Maldini.
The quartet had largely synonymous careers. All were first-team regulars in their teens. All debuted for Gli Azzurri as youngsters. All revelled in long international careers. All retired as sacred symbols of one of Italy’s biggest three clubs. All, save for the 1.78m Cabrini, were tall for the position and able to perform equivalently at centre-back or sweeper.
Inter Milan’s Davide Santon, 19, has every chance of emulating the aforementioned legends. Perceptive defensively and attack-conscious, the versatile 1.87m left-back, who made his international breakthrough last year and has become an automatic for Inter Milan, is being tipped to star at the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™.
Whispers of Santon’s prodigious ability began surfacing in 2007; two years after Inter prised him from minnows Ravenna. He starred for I Nerazzurri’s primavera side as a winger, invariably on the right, but it was at left-back that, just 19 days after his 18th birthday, Jose Mourinho handed him his first-team debut for the Coppa Italia quarter-final at home to Roma.
Inter won 2-1. Santon won over the insatiable Portuguese with a competent, mature performance, and two days later had penned a professional contract with the club. But if his Serie A bow – a 1-0 defeat of Sampdoria in the Milanese giants’ following game – was an elementary examination, his first appearance in the UEFA Champions League was an absolute baptism of fire.
Inter’s opponents were reigning world champions Manchester United. Santon’s was reigning FIFA World Player Cristiano Ronaldo, a genius effortlessly capable of humiliating the most experienced, indomitable of fullbacks.
Santon would not be one of them. For while Ronaldo relentlessly strived to deceive his young adversary, utilising his incomparable collection of tricks, the Inter No39 failed to play hoodwinked guest at his magic show.
“I was impressed by Santon,” said Ronaldo following the 0-0 draw at the San Siro. “He is a really interesting lad. There is no doubt he is a really exciting talent and a great footballer.”
Mourinho, too, had become an instant fan. Santon remained in his team for the remainder of the 2008/09 campaign and, although United went on to win the aforementioned European tie, the introverted teenager helped Inter cruise to a fourth successive Serie A title with his positional aptitude, reading of the game, distribution and capacity to charge elegantly forward and provide an outlet down the left flank.
Soon, Santon had another admirer: Italy coach Marcello Lippi. Soon, at just 18 and only days after making his senior international debut in a 1-1 draw with Northern Ireland, he was on his way to his first major international tournament: the FIFA Confederations Cup South Africa 2009.
Injury, unfortunately, put paid to Santon’s hopes of an appearance at the competition. He did, however, do enough in Italy’s early training sessions to make a grand impression on Lippi. “He’s an excellent player with a big future,” raved the 61-year-old Azzurri coach. “He reminds me of Paolo Maldini when he was young.”
Comparison to Maldini is something to which Santon has become accustomed. “People have said that I am the next Maldini, and though I think those comments are exaggerated, I am very happy with the compliments. I hope I can have a career as brilliant as his.”
The 2009/10 season did not begin promisingly for Santon. His form dipped, he lost his place in the Inter side and then sustained a knee injury while on Italy U-21 duty in November. Upon his return, however, he has rediscovered the form that evoked comparison to two of Calcio’s all-time greats, and cemented his place in Mourinho’s starting XI.
“He’s a great player and in ten or 15 years, he’ll be another Facchetti, Zanetti or Maldini, having played 200 or 300 matches in the Inter shirt,” enthused the Nerazzurri coach. “He plays at left-back but in my view he is a right-back who can also play in midfield. His versatility will be very important in his career.”
This versatility could work in Santon’s favour when Lippi names his squad for South Africa 2010. If so, the Hyundai Best Young Player Award will have an obvious Italian candidate.
source : www.fifa.com
