Arsenal are looking to sign Roma wonder-kid Salvatore Pezzella on the back of his stunning performances in the UEFA Youth League, according to MediaGol.
While almost every young talent rising through the ranks at the Stadio Olimpico usually finds himself compared to Franseco Totti at some point or other, this 20-year-old play-maker has a lot in common with another former Giallorossi gladiator.
Not that Pezzella is relishing the prospect of being labelled the second coming of Miralem Pjanic.
“I honestly don’t like it very much when they compare me to Miralem,” the Italian told Calciomeracto after Radja Nainggolan, his former Roma team-mate, pointed out the similarities.
“But I like the way (Pjanic) plays. There are a lot of people who meet me and say: ‘Hey you are the same as Pjanic’.”
Like it or not, Pezzella will have to get used to his ‘new Pjanic’ moniker.
A glittering gem of a playmaker, the Roma starlet is a set-piece master capable of putting a ball on a sixpence from any range or angle – like the Barcelona-bound Bosnian.
And, given that Mikel Arteta has his heart set on bringing Arsene Wenger’s brand of Total Football back to North London, Pezzella looks a player coded by Arsenal DNA.
MediaGol claims that Gunners scouts have been bewitched by his performances in the UEFA Youth League, though Arsenal’s first offer has been rejected by a Roma side who have little interest in letting one of Europe’s most promising young midfielders slip through their net.
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