Happy Birthday to Fabio Cannavaro who turns 49 today!
13 September 2022
Tuesday, June 4, 2019
Lorenzo Insigne was born in Naples on 4 June 1991. He was part of the Napoli youth set-up and scored 15 goals for the Primavera in the 2009-10 season. He made his debut for the Napoli senior team against Livorno on 24 January 2010. Insigne spent the rest of that season at Lega Pro side Cavese on loan, before moving to Foggia the following year. Foggia’s manager of the time was Zdenek Zeman, who helped Insigne take advantage of his technical abilities in his offensive formation as he scored 19 goals in 33 appearances for the club from Apulia. Both of them moved to Pescara one year later where Insigne would form, along with Ciro Immobile and Marco Verratti, one of the best trios in Serie B. Pescara were promoted to Serie A and Insigne scored 18 goals and added 14 assists.
After this feat at Pescara, Insigne returned to Napoli in the 2012-13 campaign, first under Coach Mazzarri and then Benitez. He became the second Italian player ever, after Antonio Di Natale, to have scored in Serie A, the Champions League, the Europa League and Coppa Italia in the same season. He was a Serie A runner-up with the team in the 2012-13 season, won the Coppa Italia in 2014 and then the Supercoppa Italiana in 2014. Following Sarri’s arrival, Lorenzo became a regular starter within the Partenopei’s attacking trio. During the 2015-16 campaign, he registered 12 goals and 10 assists, improving on this tally one year later with 18 goals and nine assists.
Insigne started playing for the Under-20 national side in 2010 before making his debut for the U21s against Liechtenstein on 16 October 2011. Overall, Insigne scored seven goals in 15 caps for the U21s and finished runner-up in the 2013 U21 Euros held in Israel.
On 2 September 2012 at the age of 21, Insigne received his first ever call-up to the senior National Team for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers against Bulgaria and Malta. He also took part in the tournament in Brazil, making just one appearance.
Antonio Conte also included him in his squad which competed at EURO 2016 in France. In total, he has made 30 Italy appearances and scored four international goals.