A complete and constantly updated database, 70 matches watched every weekend and a colour system to catalogue players, aimed at not letting anyone slip through the cracks and thanks to events like the Torneo dei Gironi, not excluding anyone.

“This tournament is the fruit of a great amount of teamwork,” junior scouting representative Alessandro Musicco was keen to specify. “We all know the purpose: find players who, for all sorts of reasons, haven’t yet been able to play for the National Team. It’s an important opportunity for the boys and a drive for youth movement.” The Torneo dei Gironi has a precise objective, as Maurizio Viscidi, National Youth Team coordinator, explained: find four ‘light blue’ category players. “The statistics show that this is the average of the last few years,” said Musicco. As well as these four ‘light blues,’ some ‘yellows’ always emerge as ‘light blues’ within a few months.” There are some illustrious names among those he mentioned: “I remember, for example, Tonali rather than Barella, as well as Chiesa or Zaniolo, guys we had identified as promising but who had yet to mature.” However, the one that had the most surprising development, according to Musicco was someone else: Davide Calabria: “He was a peculiar player,” explained the junior scouting representative, “small physically without a well-defined role. He appeared less ready than his teammates in this age group (U17). Over the years, working steadily, he has come to be Milan captain and part of the National First Team.” 

Within this system, then, there is one role that has experienced, is experiencing and will probably experience more evolution: the goalkeeper. “Coaches ask us for complete youngsters,” confessed Gaetano Petrelli, coordinator of the Azzurri goalkeeping department, “who know how to defend their goal, space and depth, the latter also outside their area.” The coaches’ needs also point to an interesting data point: “15 years ago, goalkeepers had a ratio of distance travelled compared to outfield players of 1:6. Meaning: if a midfielder ran 12km, a goalkeeper wouldn’t run more than 2.5. Today, however, they’d end up running 6/6.5km, so the ratio has become 1:2. Club Italia has very clear ideas in this regard: “We’re following the guidelines from our coordinator (Maurizio Viscidi), which are to prepare the boys for our principles of play in the short time we have them available to us. Since we are not able to work with them on technical aspects, which the boys do with their clubs, we try to focus on other things.” Finally, a small consideration on how the goalkeeper role could look in the future: “I’ve read some statements from Arteta, where he speculates alternating goalkeepers even within the same game according to the game-state, whilst Gasperini, for example, predicts that goalkeepers will be like another defender, helping with build-up. A few years ago, Thiago Motta spoke about the 2-7-2, where the number 1 could even be stationed in the 7 in midfield. Personally, I don’t know where the position will evolve to but, I am sure, it won’t be enough to just coach them technically, they need to understand the game and defensive lines.” 

THE MATCH. On the third and final day, the Under 17 National Team, coached by Massimilano Favo, initially went behind to Manuel Scacchi’s (Roma) opener in the 12th minute. They found the equaliser shortly after with a splendid long-ranged effort from Stefano Maiorana (Fiorentina) in the 20th minute. The second half, apart from a fortuitous cross-shot by Alessio Campanelli (Bari) in the 44th minute, did not offer any particular excitement, meaning the match went to penalties. Tommaso Rugani’s (Empoli) converted penalty proved decisive after Nirash Raffaello Perera (Milan) failed to score. 

U17 National Team 1-1 Rappresentativa A (7-8 after penalties)
Scorers: 12' Scacchi (A), 20' Maiorana (N).
Penalties: Maiorana (N) goal, Mussini (A) saved, Coletta (N) goal, Iddrissou (A) goal, Plicco (N) post, Mazzetti (A) saved, Mancuso (N) saved, Mariutto (A) goal, Mosconi (N) goal, Gjyla (A) goal, Vezzosi (N) goal, Nardin (A) goal, Mantini (N) goal, Atzeni (A) goal, Garofalo (N) goal, Dalla Nora (A) goal, Perera (N) saved, Rugani (A) goal.

U17 National Team( 4-3-1-2) : Dolfi; Cappelletti (31' Vezzosi), Verde © (31' Colombo), Maffessoli (31' Garofalo), Cama (31' Perera); Olivieri (31' Coletta), Mantini, Di Nunzio (31' Mancuso); Orlandi (31' Mosconi ©); Maiorana, Castaldo (31' Plicco).
Unused subs: Versari (GK)*.
Coach: Massimiliano Favo.

Rappresentativa A (4-3-1-2) : Bosi (31' Stomeo); Dalla Nora (31' Campanelli), Nardin (31' Rugani), Luchetti (31' Rizzo, 51' Nardin), Zingone (57' Dalla Nora); Scacchi (31' Mariutto), Nebuloso (31' Atzeni), Mussini; Bellino (31' Iddrissou); Leone (31' Mazzetti), Merola (31' Gjyla).
Unused subs: -
Coach: Matteo Barella.

*added from Rappresentativa B.

Referee:  Gianluca D'Onofrio 
Assistant 1: Alessandro Garoni
Assistant 2:  Emanuele Figuccia 

Note: injury time 1', 1'. Corners: 6-1.

The Squad

Goalkeepers: Gioele Bosi (Lazio)*, Brando Dolfi (Fiorentina), Alessandro Nunziante (Benevento), Lorenzo Nyarko (Sassuolo), Giorgio Stomeo (Roma), Francesco Versari (Empoli);
Defenders: Cristian Cama (Roma), Alessio Campanelli (Bari), Mattia Cappelletti (Milan), Davide Castelli (Monza), Federico Colombo (Milan), Jacopo Contarini (Juventus), Edoardo Dalla Nora (Venezia), Sebastiano Ebano (Spezia)**, Christian Garofalo (Napoli), Alessandro Luchetti (Inter)****, Manuel Maffessoli (Atalanta), Gianluca Maggiore (Atalanta), Federico Nardin (Roma), Francesco Nuvoli (Venezia), Martino Odero (Genoa), Nirash Raffaello Perera (Milan), Niccolò Rizzo (Juventus), Tommaso Rugani (Empoli), Federico Terlizzi (Roma), Francesco Verde (Juventus), Giorgio Vezzosi (Sassuolo), Diego Zingone (Juventus);
Midfielders: Davide Atzeni (Fiorentina), Filippo Bellino (Juventus)***, Federico Coletta (Roma), Guido Della Rovere (Cremonese), Alessandro Di Nunzio (Roma), Mattia Huqi (Empoli), Roberto Malfitano (Cagliari), Matias Mancuso (Inter), Matteo Mantini (Inter), Francesco Mariutto (Venezia), Antonio Stefano Merola (Juventus), Andrea Mussini (Sassuolo), Giulio Nebuloso (Lazio), Alessandro Olivieri (Empoli), Andrea Orlandi (Empoli), Lorenzo Ossola (Milan), Francesco Panico (Roma)*****, Diego Pisani (Fiorentina), Elia Plicco (Parma), Alessandro Puzzo (Colonia), Manuel Scacchi (Roma);
Attackers: Francesco Castaldo (Bologna), Carlo Evangelista (Fiorentina), Briajan Gjyla (Feralpisalò), Jamal Iddrissou (Inter), Francesco Leone (Juventus), Stefano Maiorana (Fiorentina), Gabriele Mazzetti (Bologna), Mattia Mosconi (Inter), Simone Negri (Bologna), Mattia Turella (Venezia), Christian Vaccaro (Palermo).

*replacing the unavailable Massimo Pessina (Bologna).
**replacing the unavailable Alessandro De Luca (Bologna).
***replacing the unavailable Emanuele Sala (Milan).
****replacing the unavailable Nicolas Trabucchi (Parma).
*****replacing the unavailable Niccolò Gariani (Atalanta).

Staff - Coaches: Massimiliano Favo, Matteo Barella and Daniele Franceschini; National Youth Sector Coordinator: Maurizio Viscidi; Goalkeepeing Coordinator: Gaetano Petrelli; Junior Scouting Area representative: Alessandro Musicco; Fitness coach: Adalberto Zamuner; Goalkeeping coach dei portieri: Davide Quironi; Match analyst: Andrea Loiacono; Doctors: Alessio Rossato and Sofia Calaciura Clarich; Physiotherapists: Marco Fiore and Enrico Matera; Nutritionist: Claudio Pecorella; Press Office: Alessandro Paoli; Secretary: Massimo Petracchini; Observers: Luca Briccarello, Andrea Campatelli, Gianpietro Di Pierro, Claudio Gabetta, Italo Graziani, Christian Maggio, Domenico Maggiora, Antonio Martella, Matteo Orlandoni, Daniele Ranzato, Giovanni Re, Armando Reggianini, Francesco Talarico and Carlo Zanantoni.

Torneo dei Gironi

Teams: U17 National Team, Rappresentativa A and Rappresentativa B.

First day (Friday 24 November)
Rappresentativa A 1-0 Rappresentativa B
Rest: U17 National Team

Second day (Saturday 25 November)
U17 National Team 2-0 Rappresentativa B
Rest: Rappresentativa A

Third day (Sunday 26 November)
U17 National Team 1-1 Rappresentativa A  (6-7 after penalties)
Rest: Rappresentativa B

Standings: U17 National Team 5 points, Rappresentativa A 4, Rappresentativa B 0.