The 20 Serie A youngsters with the most potential

Martin Macdonald

27 Apr 2022 06:20 CDT
4 min read

Sandro Tonali, AC Milan, 2021-22 — © ProShots

Sandro Tonali is the Serie A player at the age of 21 or younger with the most potential, according to SciSports.

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Using in-game data to calculate the performance of every Serie A player, the Milan star has statistically the highest ceiling of any youngster plying their trade in Italy's top flight.

Tonali burst onto the scene at Brescia as a 17-year-old and was immediately tipped for greatness.

The youngster was labelled the ‘new Pirlo’ due to having a similar appearance, style of play and career origins to the former Brescia, Milan, Juventus and Italy midfield maestro.

He is already a key player for Milan and is set to marshall the Italy midfield for the next decade, too.

The player with the second-biggest potential is Wilfried Singo. He made his debut for Torino in the 2019/20 season and in the 2020/21 campaign went on to start 16 out of 27 possible games in Serie A, making him a trusted player despite his young age.

His performances stepped up again in the current season, with three goals and four assists in 29 starts in Serie A.

One of the revelations in Serie A this campaign has been Aaron Hickey. The former Hearts left-back recently became the first Scot to score five goals in Serie A since Graeme Souness in the early 1980s.

In fourth is Ivan Ilic. A strong central midfielder, the young Serbian is usually placed just in front of his own defence to provide protection as well as to move possession further forward.

Rounding out the top five is Gianluca Busio. He is already a full international for the United States and has made 28 appearances for Venezia this season.

A few other notable names in the top 20 are Mikel Damsgaard, Nicolo Rovella and Kaio Jorge.

The Sampdoria midfielder proved to be one of the breakout stars of Euro 2020 when he was drafted into Denmark’s team to replace Christian Eriksen and truly thrived under the pressure of an entire nation.

Player	Parent Club	SciSports Potential
1. Sandro Tonali	Milan	123.5
2. Wilfried Singo	Torino	115.2
3. Aaron Hickey	Bologna	110.8
4. Ivan Ilic	Verona	110.4
5. Gianluca Busio	Venezia	108.5
6. Giorgio Scalvini	Atalanta	106.2
7. Arthur Theate	Oostende	105.6
8. Mikkel Damsgaard	Sampdoria	105.4
9. Andrea Carboni	Cagliari	105.3
10. Nicolo Rovella	Juventus	104.8
11. Samuele Ricci	Empoli	102.2
12. Kaio Jorge	Juventus	101.4
13. Mattia Viti	Empoli	100.7
14. Destiny Udogie	Verona	100.6
15. Ethan Ampady	Chelsea	99.9
16. David Zima	Torino	99.8
17. Eddie Salcedo	Inter	98.3
18. Fabiano Parisi	Empoli	97.9
19. Janis Antiste	Spezia	97.3
20. Nehuen Perez	Atletico	96.4

How is the SciSkill ranking calculated?

SciSports explains how our development ratings are gathered:

“Among others, a positive development could be boosted by more playing time, playing time on a higher level or better performances on the pitch.

“A negative development could be due to the player being active on a lower level than he used to play, bad performances or the fact that he does not play that often as he used to do.

“A SciSkill Development of 0.0 could indicate that a player is performing exactly like our algorithm expects him to do. Another reason could be inactivity (e.g. a long-term injury or suspension).”