If any player deserved a magical, fairytale ending – it was Cesare Casadei. But it wasn't to be. His Italy Under-20 team were beaten 1-0 against Uruguay in the U20 World Cup final at the weekend.
Seven goals and two assists in seven matches for the young Italians meant Casadei, who spent the second half of the 2022/23 season on loan at Reading from Chelsea, won the Adidas Golden Boot award. As well as this, the extremely talented 20-year-old was handed the Golden Ball award – a trophy given to the best player throughout the tournament. And nobody can argue with that.
Casadei scored three doubles throughout the competition to send the Italians all the way to the final. The Chelsea midfielder also sent England packing in the Round of 16 with an 87th-minute penalty seeing the young Azzurri progress into the next round.
The Italian is now the country's all-time leading goal scorer at an U20s World Cup – with seven to his name. He is also his country's top scorer at any single global tournament. It would have been fitting for Casadei to be lifting the World Cup trophy at the end of the competition, but it wasn't to be.
With Chelsea planning to offload numerous midfielders this summer as part of the highly documented squad revamp, could there be a place for Casadei next season? He will certainly hope his new head coach Mauricio Pochettino has been paying some attention to his exploits in Argentina.
Mateo Kovacic is free to leave the club this summer with Manchester City one of multiple sides interested in the Croatian's signature. Likewise, Ruben Loftus-Cheek will be allowed to leave with the midfielder having just 12 months remaining on his contract with Chelsea.
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football.london understands there is a growing expectation that Conor Gallagher will leave the club on a permanent basis this summer. Newcastle United and West Ham United both have a keen interest in the England international, with the transfer window opening officially this week.
N'Golo Kante is on the verge of leaving to move to Saudi Arabia, while Denis Zakaria's loan will not be made permanent after an unsuccessful season-long spell at Chelsea. So there is definitely room for Casadei to fit in at Stamford Bridge. However, it largely relies on what Pochettino thinks.
The future of Mason Mount still remains up in the air as well. football.london understands there has still not been a new contract offer put to the England international since January when Chelsea proposed a one-year extension on his deal. Manchester United are still working behind the scenes to try and get the deal done, but there has been no breakthrough between the two clubs yet with Chelsea wanting £70million for his signature.
We've seen during his time at Tottenham and Southampton in the Premier League that the Argentine is not afraid to give youngsters an opportunity to prove themselves in the first-team squad. But the incoming Chelsea boss might think another loan spell – this time to a club in the top flight – might actually benefit Casadei more.
That way, he will be guaranteed more first-team football. Chelsea could look for Casadei to take a similar path to that of Levi Colwill. Despite many calling for the young English centre-back to be given a chance in the first-team last summer, the Blues made a rather unpopular decision of loaning him out to Brighton – and it proved to be a really intelligent move.
Twelve months on and Chelsea have a returning player in Colwill who has a lot more experience under his belt and one that they believe is ready to become a starter at Stamford Bridge. Who is to say Casadei doesn't move on loan to a club like Brighton next season?
Signed last summer for a deal believed to be around £16m – £12m and £4m in add-ons – Chelsea supporters will be desperate to see the Italian in the famous blue shirt sooner rather than later. But a loan move may be the wisest move for the club to consider this summer in a bid not to interrupt the youngster's development.
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