The Adventures of “Skamacca”
Gianluca Skamacca (23, contract until mid 2027), the West Ham United striker for £35.5m, has been playing in the Premier League for the first season of his life. A young Roman by birth is on another adventure abroad. And this time comes with even more expectations.
In the past, since Andre Silenzi, the first Italian striker to play in the Premier League with Nottingham Forest in 1995, many Italian strikers have come to prove their abilities. Many of them have become memorable legends. Many have had bittersweet stories with the Premier League and today the Italian international striker is about to taste it in person for the first time.
Skamagca began his footballing career in Rome. And he is one of only a handful of footballers to have played for Lazio and Roma, both of whom have played for Rome. Even if it’s just a youth team Before making a big turn in his life when he was given a chance from abroad at the age of 16, at that time PSV Eindhoven, the top team from the Netherlands brought him to work with him And it’s the right choice. And not at the same time for him with his two-year period in Windmill.
“I didn’t want to leave Italy at that time. But it’s self-improvement. I believe that going to the netherlands I want to develop myself It’s the best place to learn about football. I thought that at my age at the time I couldn’t do that in Italy,” said Skamacca.
“In Italy it is different from the Netherlands. In youth teams under 18 or under 19, they don’t work with players one-on-one. But they teach the players in a team way. Teaching about playing tactics, how to make the team win but in the Netherlands Or in many other countries, teaching about the player’s personal play.”
During that time, PSV was no different from today. They are at the forefront of football, vying for the title with Ajax Amsterdam under a group of top players and coaches like Mark van Ballmel and Ruud van Nistelrooy, who is currently the first team manager at Phi. SV who teaches him as a rising star away from home Which has a great effect on him.
“It was great working there. Ruud taught me a lot about playing as a striker. You have to work hard in the penalty area. Learn to patiently wait for opportunities in the area.”
However, his career path with PSV was not so beautiful. He play just one game for the first team. The rest of which were circling through the club’s youth teams. Which if it is said that according to the statistics that come out. It is not elegant. He scored very few goals but learned a lot. At the age of 18, he signed for Italian Serie A side Sasuolo, where his life continued to have many adventures in his first three years. that He was loaned out to PEC Swall, Ascoli, including Genoa, with Genoa.
He began to show signs of self-improvement. with scoring in Serie A for the first time And after that, the next goal began to follow, ending with eight goals that year. And of course his reputation and opportunity from came again. And his life has changed in a different way than the past. When he scored 16 goals alone in Serie A and led him to the senior Italy squad, he has now made nine appearances for the national team.
With a height of 195 centimeters, a tall figure. Of course, he’s one of the center strikers that Italy doesn’t have in the current squad. The player himself has Zlatan Ibrahimovic as his idol.
“I really like Zlatan. he is my inspiration But I’m not like him. It’s very difficult to play like him. I’ve been following him since he was a kid when he played for Juventus. But at the same time I watched the performance of many players. I want to be able to use the good things of each person for myself. I want the courage of Zlatan. Get Lukaku’s speed and want consistency in Ronaldo’s work They are Serie A’s top strikers,” Skamacca said during the 2020-2021 season about his style. Which eventually led to the latest big team move in the past summer. With a heading to West Ham United he turned down a move to join PSG and Inter Milan to move to England.
“I’ve had offers from a number of clubs but West Ham are the ones I’m interested in and it’s clear they are serious about wanting me to join the club. And this is the Premier League, one of the top leagues in the world. I chose to come here through consultation with Roberto Mancini, the Italian national team manager. And he stated that it was a good league. and suitable for me to further develop myself.”