Francesco Camarda (born 10 March 2008) is an Italian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

club AC Milan.

Early life

Camarda was born in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, Italy. As a child, he also took an interest in

kickboxing Kickboxing is a combat sports, combat sport focused on kicking and punch (strike), punching. The combat takes place in a boxing ring, normally with boxing gloves, mouthguards, shorts, and bare feet to favour the use of kicks. Kickboxing is pract ...

Club career

AC Milan

Youth

Camarda started his career with Afforese, a football school in

Affori Affori is a ward of Milan, Italy, part of the Zone 9 administrative division of the city, located north of the city centre. It borders with the wards of Bruzzano, Comasina, Bovisasca, Dergano and Niguarda. Before being annexed to Milan in 1923, i ...

, where he grew up. During his time with Afforese, he trained with the academy of professional side AC Milan, and went on to join the club permanently in 2015, after just over a year with Afforese. In his first training session with AC Milan, he was deployed as a defender, but after continually dribbling through the opposition teams and scoring, he was moved up front to play as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

. During his time in the academy of AC Milan, Camarda established himself as a prolific goal-scorer; at an under-9 tournament in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Austria, he was taken off due to injury with his side 2–0 down to German opposition

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

. He asked his coach to return to the field and went on to score two goals and provide an assist in the eventual 3–2 win. His prolific form continued as he progressed through the academy, and he went on to score 22 goals in 24 games for AC Milan's under-15 side, leading them to the under-15 Scudetto title. Eventually, his goal-scoring feats drew the attention of international media, and he was lauded for having scored 485 goals in only 89 matches for AC Milan's academy, an average of 5.45 goals per game. He trained with AC Milan's under-19 side at the age of fourteen, and scored two goals for the side in a friendly win against Eccellenza team Solbiatese. Camarda made his UEFA Youth League debut against

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

on 19 September 2023, scoring a brace in a 4–0 victory. These goals made Camarda the second-youngest player to score a brace in the tournament and the youngest-ever Italian goalscorer at , breaking Fabrizio Caligara's record of .

Senior

In November 2023, amid an injury crisis, AC Milan manager

Stefano Pioli Stefano Pioli (; born 20 October 1965) is an Italian football manager and a former footballer who played as a defender. He is the head coach at Serie A club AC Milan, whom he led to the Serie A title in 2022. Playing career Pioli, a native of ...

called up Camarda as part of the first team squad for the

game against

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fo ...

on 25 November 2023; in order to do so, the club had to specifically request an authorization from the Italian Football Federation, as under-16 players are normally not allowed to be part of an Italian first team. He was eventually substituted on for

Luka Jović Luka Jović ( sr-Cyrl, Лука Јовић; born 23 December 1997) is a Serbian professional footballer who plays as a striker for club Fiorentina and the Serbia national team. Early life Jović was born in Loznica, FR Yugoslavia. He was rais ...

in the 83rd minute, becoming the youngest Serie A footballer ever at of age.

International career

Camarda has represented Italy at under-15, under-16, and under-17 levels. With the U17 side he won the

2024 UEFA European Under-17 Championship The 2024 UEFA European Under-17 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-17 Euro 2024) will be the 21st UEFA European Under-17 Championship (40th edition if the Under-16 era is also included), the annual international youth football championship org ...

and was named ''Player of the Tournament''.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Italy U17 *

UEFA European Under-17 Championship The UEFA European Under-17 Championship or simply UEFA Under-17 Championship, is an annual football competition contested by the European men's under-17 national teams of the member associations of UEFA. Spain is the most successful team in this ...

2024 Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1928 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ***''Steamboat Willie'', Walt Disney's fi ...

Individual * UEFA European Under-17 Championship Player of the Tournament:

Team of the Tournament:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Camarda, Francesco 2008 births Living people Footballers from Milan Italian men's footballers Men's association football forwards AC Milan players Serie A players Italy men's youth international footballers