Samuele Longo: one for the future

Samuele Longo is one of the brightest talents that most football enthusiasts may not have heard of, but he indeed is the gem of a talent who has a potential of taking the footballing world by storm in the near future.

He is a 20-year-old Italian striker who is currently playing in Liga BBVA for RCD Espanyol on a year-long loan. He has already made his debut for the Italian U21 team. He caught the eye of many football pundits in the year 2011-12 NextGen series. In the semi-final, he scored a hat-trick against AC Milan, later going on to win the series. He scored 5 goals, finishing just behind Viktor Fischer, another superb young talent from Ajax. After such an impressive show, he made his senior debut for Inter in May’12.His market value suddenly rose from £ 4,00,000 in March’12 to £ 1,300,000 in May’12. He was sent on full year loan deal to RCD Espanyol for 2012-13 season.

Standingover 6 feet, he has shown his great aerial ability. He is a poacher inside the box with excellent finishing abilities. He reminds me of Fernando Torres in his early days with nearly same build and poaching ability, lightning pace and decent dribbling abilities. He has an excellent work rate and can run from deep and go for long shots. There is no doubt that the big clubs are after him for his signature but the Nerazzuri are reluctant to let this bright prospect leave them and since their frontline is already packed up with the likes of Cassano, Milito and Palacio, to give him first team experience so as to develop him even further, he has been loaned out to Espanyol.

Here is look at his football statistics-

Club	Season	League		Cup		Europe		Other		Total
		Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Inter	2011–12	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
	2012–13	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0
	Total	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	2	0
Espanyol	2012–13	4	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2
	Total	4	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2
Total		5	2	0	0	1	0	0	0	4	2

Here are a few glimpses of his talent: