NAME: Sebastiano Esposito
BORN IN: Castellammare di Stabia (NA), on 02/07/2002
ROLE: striker
TEAM: Empoli
Incoming move for Empoli: he arrives in Tuscany Sebastian Esposito from Inter, on a dry loan after renewing his contract with the Nerazzurri.
The 22-year-old is already starting to be an extremely promising name in the Nerazzurri youth system. Antonio Conte gave him his Champions League debut in the 2019/20 season against Borussia Dortmund, and in the Nerazzurri’s Scudetto season he made 7 appearances and scored 1 goal. In 2020 he began a series of loans, first in Italy, to Spal (10 appearances, 1 goal) and then to Venezia (18 appearances, 2 goals) in Serie B, before adding experience abroad to his resume: first to Basel, in Switzerland, where he played 23 games with 6 goals, and then to Anderlecht, in Belgium, where he made 14 appearances and scored 1 goal. In the last year and a half he returned to Serie B, first at Bari at the end of the 2022/23 season, with 11 appearances and 4 goals, and then played his last season at Sampdoria under the guidance of Andrea Pirlo, finishing with 22 appearances, 6 goals and an improvement in performances. The player also boasts 50 appearances overall from the Under 16 to the Under 21 national team, with an excellent score of 27 goals.
He is a very versatile striker in the central area: he can play as a centre forward, but he is also good at playing as a second striker in a two-man attack, a role where he probably performed best under Pirlo last season. A complete player who likes to vary and constantly find one-on-ones in the central area, with a good shot and excellent technique.
Fantasy football advice: Esposito could prove to be a very interesting profile for potential and room for improvement. Empoli could be a good place for him, for a number of reasons: he will be under the guidance of D’Aversa, a coach who in his last experience at Lecce often had the courage to launch young profiles, Dorgu and Piccoli above all; furthermore, market permitting, we are talking about an offensive department, that of Empoli, which is not extremely crowded, and which can therefore guarantee him a significant number of games up for vote. At the moment we recommend him as the last slot in the 8-a-side leagues, and the 5th slot in the 10-a-side leagues. He could also be one of the team’s penalty takers.