Football: “chosen one” makes Italy swarm

At 16 years and 247 days, the offensive man from Friuli became the youngest Italian team player since 1911, i.e. more than 100 years. He only played 22 minutes for Udinese in Serie A. The exceptional talent was born in 2006. Pafundi was just three months old when Italy captured their last World Cup title.

“In many ways he resembles Barcelona’s young star Pedri. He’s agile on the pitch, small but tough,” said the Gazzetta. Pafundi mainly acts behind the strikers, he has also been compared to Lionel Messi because of his style of play and 1.66 m height. After his substitution in the 90th minute, the future hope in Tirana almost scored another goal. “He can be a great player,” said Italy team boss Roberto Mancini.

His international debut was very nice, Pafundi explained in a video published on Friday by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) on Twitter. “It was really emotional because I’ve dreamed about it since I was a kid.” The first day at the national team camp took him a little getting used to. “Everything has been great since then, the guys are great to me.”

16-year-old Wanner gets a taste of the ÖFB team

A 16-year-old is also training with the Austrian national team for the first time this week. However, Paul Wanner is only called up for the ongoing team camp in Marbella. ÖFB team boss Ralf Rangnick did not nominate the Austrian-German dual citizen for the international match against Andorra on Wednesday (1-0) as agreed in advance and will also do without the midfielder against Italy. It is still unclear whether Wanner will play international matches for the ÖFB or the DFB team in the future.

“Technically, he brings a lot with him. That’s a player who has great potential,” Rangnick said of Wanner. In the medium term, Wanner will have to make the decision between Austria and Germany himself. “If we actually nominated him for qualifying games or a EURO at some point for performance reasons, then at the latest,” said Rangnick. However, Wanner will not be put under pressure. “We have now given him what we can do. We showed him what it looks like and how it works here. We can’t force anyone or put a gun to their chest. These are things that everyone has to decide for themselves.”

While Wanner, who is three months his senior, has been playing for Bayern Munich again and again, Pafundi played his last and so far only professional game for his club Udinese on May 22 of this year. Since then, the son of Neapolitan parents has been playing in the Primavera, the U19 league, again. Nevertheless, Italy’s U17s went straight to the senior team. “You can only owe such a vertical start to a daring national coach like Mancini,” said the sports newspaper “Corriere dello Sport”.

Mancini relies on youth

In fact, since losing the World Cup play-off against North Macedonia (0-1) in March, Mancini has experienced something of a youth mania. With Giorgio Scalvini, he relied on an 18-year-old in central defense against Albania. In contrast to Pafundi, the 1.94 meter man is already a regular at Atalanta Bergamo. He played his second international match in Tirana – and that for the full 90 minutes. The youngster from Lombardy received very good reviews afterwards.

But the teenagers were outshined by Vincenzo Grifo. The winger, who was born in Germany and was in top form at SC Freiburg, excelled in the 3-1 win in Tirana with two goals and one assist. “Grifo confirms what has long been known in the (German, note) Bundesliga – namely that it is a glossy product”, commented the “Corriere dello Sport”.

Grifo leads scorer list in Germany

The 29-year-old has already scored eleven competitive goals for Freiburg this season, including a hat-trick in the league hit against Union Berlin (4-1). ÖFB team striker Michael Gregoritsch is only slightly behind him with ten goals for the sensational second in the German Bundesliga. For Grifo it was the seventh international match, the first in a year and a half.

He was born and grew up in Pforzheim, and his career really got going late. “Vincenzo is an exceptional guy,” said Mancini. If he also shows up in Vienna on Sunday, he could establish himself in the “Azzurri” team in the long term.

Austria without a win against Italy since 1960

For the ÖFB team, the Happel Stadium is about the first win against Italy since 1960. In the 14 games played against the “Azzurri” since then, there have been three draws and eleven defeats. In the last duel in June 2021, the Austrians only narrowly lost 2-1 after extra time to the eventual European champions in the round of 16. ÖFB goal scorer Sasa Kalajdzic is missing in the new edition on Sunday in Vienna because of his long-term knee injury.

It will be the 39th international match between Austria and Italy. The fact that the overall balance for Austria with 13 wins and eight draws with 17 defeats doesn’t read so badly is mainly due to the time before the Second World War. After 1945, the ÖFB selection only won four times in 21 games against their southern neighbors – with 14 defeats. The last full success so far came thanks to goals from Erich Hof and Ernst Kaltenbrunner in December 1960 in Naples (2:1).

Since then, red-white-red has looked particularly bad at home. In five home games against Italy after 1960, the Austrians suffered four defeats. The only draw was a 0-0 draw in June 1974. At that time, Leopold Stastny’s ÖFB team challenged the Italians in their immediate World Cup preparations in front of 50,000 spectators in Vienna’s Prater with a strong performance. A goal against starting goalkeeper Dino Zoff did not succeed in this game but also Hans Krankl.