Five Young Serie A Talents to Watch in 2025

L’Ultimo Uomo takes us through five of the most interesting U21 talents from Serie A that look set to make waves in 2025.
Vasilije Adžić (18, Midfielder, Juventus and Montenegro)
Adžić was born in Nikšić, just like Mirko Vučinić, and grew up at Budućnost, just like the "genius" Dejan Savićević — a footballing pedigree as aristocratic as it gets for a number ten hailed as Montenegro's brightest young talent.
Perhaps it’s this alluring background that led to a bidding war for his transfer during the January 2024 Serie A transfer window. In the end, Juventus beat Bologna thanks to a higher offer and Cristiano Giuntoli's determination to bring him to Turin.
Adžić remained in Montenegro for a few more months before arriving at Juventus in the summer, signing a three-year contract that includes plans for him to play both with the first team and Juventus Next Gen. He is, after all, just 18 years old.

So far, Adžić has struggled to make a significant impact, although he’s often been called up by coach Thiago Motta and even introduced in challenging match scenarios where he hasn’t looked out of place. Against Lazio, for example, he came close to scoring with a powerful, curling shot from the edge of the box—one of his most dangerous moves. In the Next Gen squad, Adžić operates around a more advanced striker (often Afena-Gyan) who focuses on running in behind.
Adžić has been compared to a wide range of players—Kevin De Bruyne and Jude Bellingham most notably. These comparisons are clumsy attempts to describe his creativity in the attacking midfield role and his ability to be decisive, primarily thanks to the technical quality of his right foot.
He takes corners and free kicks and can strike the ball with the inside or instep to produce trajectories that are out of reach for most players. Adžić’s right foot is special and seems to be the greatest assurance of his future success. How much can go wrong for a player who strikes the ball so well? Isn’t that the essence of football? This quality is the foundation around which his development must be built.

At present, Adžić doesn’t seem to have the strength to hold his ground in duels with his back to goal or to play with intensity in tight spaces as an attacking midfielder. Dropping him deeper would take him too far from goal and reduce the opportunities to showcase his shooting ability, which would be a shame. On the wing, he may lack the required pace. However, his skill in switching play and tight exchanges is already evident.
In short, Adžić is still a work in progress, but the quality of his foot is beyond question. In January, Juventus might decide to send him out on loan to another Serie A club, with Genoa and Cagliari showing concrete interest.
Giovanni Leoni (18, Defender, Parma and Italy)
Giovanni Leoni was one of the surprises of last season's Serie B, playing for Sampdoria. Thrown into the deep end by Andrea Pirlo during the team’s toughest moments, he quickly adapted to the required level and earned a summer move to Serie A with Parma.

The club paid €5 million plus bonuses for him—a significant amount considering Leoni was born in December 2006 and had played only a handful of professional matches before the summer. Most observers believe that Leoni has immense potential, and that those €5 million could prove to be a low-risk investment.
Parma coach Fabio Pecchia seems to agree, having started him against Venezia in November and later thrust him into action at San Siro against Inter following an injury to Hungarian centre-back Balogh. Serie A is a demanding league for defenders, especially young ones, so it was far from guaranteed that Leoni would rack up playing time so quickly.
Last season, Leoni primarily played as the right centre-back in a back three, a role that allowed him to play instinctively. He could aggressively close down opponents without worrying too much about what was happening behind him.
This year, at Parma, he has had to adjust to a back-four system, requiring more reflection and consideration of multiple variables before making decisions. Additionally, Parma often defends deep to counter-attack, demanding high levels of concentration.

Francesco Camarda (16, Striker, Milan and Italy)
On 25 November 2023, at 15 years and 260 days old, Francesco Camarda became the youngest debutant in Serie A history. At 16 years and 226 days, he became the youngest Italian to debut in the Champions League. It has been a long time since Italian football produced such a highly anticipated talent.


When he started against Cagliari, things didn’t go as well, which is understandable for a player not yet 17. At this stage, he’s already capable of making an impact as a substitute, particularly against tired or deep-lying defences where he can operate comfortably in the penalty area. Alessandro Costacurta has compared his movement off the ball to Pippo Inzaghi’s, praising his knack for shaking off defenders. Coach Fonseca has shown more faith in him than expected, partly due to injuries to Álvaro Morata and Abraham.
Camarda’s development in 2025 — divided between the first team and Milan Futuro — will be crucial for building his career. The hope, for him, for Milan, and for Italian football, is that it will be as bright as anticipated.
Nico Paz (20, Midfielder, Como and Argentina)
Pablo Paz, a former Argentinian centre-back, won silver at the 1996 Olympics and was part of the squad that reached the 1998 World Cup quarter-finals. During his time at Tenerife, he fathered Nico Paz, a left-footed attacking midfielder standing over 1.85m tall. Nico chose to represent Argentina over Spain and, at just 20, has already made his senior debut, assisting Lionel Messi.

Nico Paz’s rise has been rapid. Only a few months ago, he was a Real Madrid Castilla talent, scoring against Napoli in the Champions League. Now, he’s one of Serie A’s most exciting players. Sold to newly promoted Como for €6 million, where he’s coached by Cesc Fàbregas, Nico has already scored three goals and provided three assists. His left foot ranks him among the league’s elite left-footed players alongside Dybala, Dimarco, Bastoni, and De Ketelaere.
Nico Paz typically starts on the right but loves to drift into the centre, as shown by his heat map. He supports the team’s build-up play, his shot is a threat from the edge of the box, and he makes deep runs into the heart of the penalty area.
After Oristanio and Leão, he is the player with the most successful dribbles in the league and attempts as many as Kvaratskhelia. His dribbling represents several things at once: confidence (which isn’t a given for a 20-year-old in his first professional season), the ability to withstand pressure even with his back to goal and in tight spaces, and finally, unpredictability and pure creativity.

Nico Paz immediately looks to take on his opponent when he has the ball, showing a level of self-assurance that hints at his potential to become a great player. He isn’t a typical inverted winger cutting inside but rather a true number 10 who wants the ball in the most critical areas of the pitch and can improvise his way toward goal, one step at a time.
In the first half of the season, Nico surprised and mesmerised us. In the second half, he will need to maintain this level against teams that now see him as Como’s main threat. Then, in June, it will be time to make important decisions. Real Madrid retains a buy-back option, but for Nico to reach his full potential, he will need a club that believes in him as much as he believes in himself.

Alieu Njie (19, Winger, Torino and Sweden)
At the end of October, in the dying minutes of a match against Como that seemed destined to finish 0-0, we discovered that Torino could count on a striker we didn’t yet know. In the 75th minute, less than ten minutes after coming on, he latched onto a random high ball in the opposition’s final third and turned it into the winning goal.
First, he outjumped Dossena with his long legs springing off the ground like coils, then he anticipated the mistake Braunöder was about to make—a weak header back to his own goalkeeper. At that point, he used his long legs again to untangle the situation: he hooked the ball with his left foot like a harpoon to beat Pepe Reina, then used his right foot to slot it home.

His name is Alieu Njie, born in Sweden to Gambian parents, and he has yet to turn 20. He’s been at Torino for over three years, but only this season found a manager who believed he could make an impact among the professionals. “Njie is a striker we signed today, and he’s not half bad, is he?” joked Torino president Urbano Cairo a few days after Njie’s first Serie A goal.
When he steps onto the pitch, he’s one of the few players capable of injecting pace into a team that too often indulges in its own monotony. Njie, on the other hand, is hungry, sprints eagerly, and tries to pack as much into his performance as possible, almost as if afraid of being forgotten.
This is probably why Paolo Vanoli continues to bring him on only as a substitute, hoping he’ll shake up the game. Physically, he’s a prototype reminiscent of Leão, the player he says he looks up to: long legs, one-on-one isolations, and a burst of pace over distance that opponents sometimes cannot match. For this reason, he seems to need plenty of space, and when Vanoli has played him centrally as a second striker in a 3-5-2, the space seemed too restricted for his exuberance.

In the most recent match, against Parma, Vanoli finally deployed him as a left winger in a 4-2-3-1, and Njie was his usual whirlwind self: always trying to make something happen, albeit with a few rough edges. The impression is that he still needs to learn how to channel his speed to serve his technique. On Instagram, perhaps frustrated, he wrote: “There are some things I need to work on. But I will never give up.”
With just a handful of minutes as a professional under his belt and his first Serie A start yet to come, he has his entire journey ahead of him.