At a time when Italian football has to endure the international break that, let’s be honest, bores and annoys most fans, it almost feels “automatic” and “necessary” to find something to talk about, something to fill newspaper pages and social media. During this second break of the season, the main topic has been, and still is, the “rivalry” between the two most promising young Italian strikers: Francesco Camarda and Francesco Pio Esposito.
That is actually topic discussed since the summer, but which, during these two weeks without league or European games, has become even more intense.
The Italian football world is divided: Who is better: Camarda or Esposito?
Is AC Milan’s young striker, on loan to Lecce, stronger than Inter’s fourth-choice forward? It seems that, over half a century later, some are trying again, within reason, to build a new rivalry between the two sides of the Navigli, as there was in the 1960s and 1970s between Gianni Rivera and Sandro Mazzola. That contrast between two immense icons of Italian football divided the country and reached its peak at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, when national team coach Ferruccio Valcareggi came up with the famous “relay” between the two stars, who rarely played together. Rivera, the first Italian Ballon d’Or winner, entered only in the second half of the semifinal against Germany and played just the last six minutes of the final against Brazil, when the score was already 4–1 for the South Americans. It was a scandal acknowledged by everyone.
By the way, before going deeper into the comparison between the two players, fans looking to pass the time during the international break, while waiting for club football to resume, might find it interesting to check out dating sites to meet new people. If they are lucky, they might even match with another AC Milan fan.
Why Camarda and Esposito are needed for Italian football:
Today, it feels like people must again take sides, for Camarda or for Esposito. As if one must decide who is better, the one from Castellammare di Stabia or the one from Milan. When instead everyone should hope both become the future, hopefully bright, of a national team that has missed the World Cup for too many years and will again need to fight through tricky playoffs to qualify for the next one (Sweden and North Macedonia serve as reminders). Camarda and Esposito are both clear talents, but they need to be spared from pressure and exaggerated expectations, especially given their age. One is 20 (Esposito), the other is still underage, as pointed out by Milan Press.
So as Italians and football lovers, we should hope the two together can bring the national team back to its former glory, without recreating the kind of “relay” that in Mexico ’70 caused more harm than good.
One final point: in recent weeks, several journalists close to Inter have accused Milan fans of creating the Camarda - Esposito rivalry, especially on social media, calling them envious troublemakers. They ignore, or pretend to ignore, that the many memes featuring Esposito, shared by fans of many different teams, not only Milan supporters, were not meant to mock the 2005-born striker. The goal was to highlight a certain media narrative that, to be honest, has portrayed the talented Inter player as if he were already an established star. After all, the match rating given after his anonymous and poor performance against Cremonese, a generous 6, justified with the phrase: "Appluads Bonny as he leaves the field", was certainly not written by a Milan fan.
