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Inter Milan’s 20-year-old striker Francesco Pio Esposito is rightly being lauded and scored his first goal for Italy against Estonia last week, but another name is making waves – Francesco Camarda, a player three years younger, and potentially more devastating.

Together, they could well become the strike partnership that defines the Azzurri’s future.

At 17 years, six months and 18 days old, Camarda scored his first Serie A goal against Bologna in September, becoming the youngest player in Lecce’s history to do so – the AC Milan forward sent south to gain experience on loan under Eusebio di Francesco.

With that goal before the international break, he broke yet another record in his remarkably precocious career.

Camarda had already made history on 25 November 2023, when he came on late in Milan’s game against Fiorentina.

Under Stefano Pioli, he became the youngest player to make his debut in Serie A. The Italian FA granted Milan a special exemption to allow Camarda to play at just 15 years, eight months, and 13 days, because regulations do not allow players under 16 to feature in the top flight.

He was also the youngest player to appear for Milan, breaking the record held by legendary defender Paolo Maldini.

The following season, under Paulo Fonseca, he made his Champions League debut against Club Brugge – with a goal ruled out by the video assistant referee (VAR) – becoming Milan and Italy’s youngest player to feature in the competition at 16 years and 226 days.

This week, he also became the youngest Italian ever to score for the under-21s national team. On his Azzurrini debut against Sweden in a European Championship qualifier, the 17-year-old netted a cheeky Panenka penalty.

It showcased all his qualities – composure, quick feet, strength on the ball, and an ice-cold temperament in front of goal.

“Sometimes, when he drops deep, he still looks a bit raw technically, but inside the box he’s a phenomenon,” said manager Massimiliano Favo, who led Italy Under-17s to victory at the 2024 European Championship, where Camarda was his main striker.

In that tournament, despite being a year younger than most team-mates, Camarda scored four goals – including two in the final against Portugal and the decisive penalty versus England in the quarter-finals – earning both the trophy and the player of the tournament award.

“His hunger and the way he earns the respect of team-mates are his biggest strengths, even more than his natural scoring instinct, because he lives for goals,” said Favo.

Camarda, who has always played with older team-mates, has been regarded as a prodigy in Italy for years.

But Milan – his boyhood club, where he has been since age seven – have done well to shield him from the spotlight. He, in turn, has let his talent do the talking.

“You could tell right away he was different. His awareness and speed of thought stood out,” said Angelo Carbone, former head of Milan’s youth academy and now in charge at US Sassuolo.

“The first time I saw him was at a seven-a-side trial. He did things with incredible simplicity – direct, effective play, and decisions beyond his age.

“You could see it in how he used his body and received the ball – those are innate qualities. Even before the play reaches the box, he already knows where to be to get to the ball first.”

And if anyone still doubted his confidence, former AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic provided proof in his own way.

“When I messaged Ibra, I was only 10,” Camarda explained in a news conference before the Sweden game. “I admired him a lot, and still do. He’s a player I’ve learned so much from.”

Camarda – who has a tattoo of the San Siro’s Curva Sud on his right arm – seems to take everything in his stride, showing remarkable calm under the weight of expectation.

“Honestly, I don’t think about it much,” he said. “People say I’m destined for greatness – I don’t.

“I just focus on the present, day by day, trying to enjoy myself and give my best for both club and country. I try to block out the noise, because in the end the pitch speaks.”

The boy who has already scored more than 500 goals in youth football is very close to his parents, who moved from the Milan area to Lecce to support his development.

Milan clearly see him as part of their future – after fending off interest from the likes of Real Madrid, Manchester United and Manchester City, they tied him down with a contract until 2028.

“I remember when, at 16, we called him up for the under-18s to play a friendly against the first team,” recalls Carbone.

“He was marked by Fikayo Tomori, and he scored right away. [Milan technical director] Maldini, who was watching, immediately asked to switch off the Milan Channel cameras – Camarda wasn’t under contract yet, and he didn’t want foreign clubs to notice him.”

“Maybe not right away, but in a few years, he’ll be a top player,” predicts Italy Under-21s boss Favo.

“Francesco has all the qualities to become a key figure for Italian football,” said Carbone. “Will it happen? We can’t say yet, but he certainly has everything it takes.

“He still has to follow his process of development though – he’s still just a 17-year-old kid.”

A kid who added two more goals to his tally in his second game for Italy Under-21s against Armenia on Tuesday.

Evan McPherson’s field goal with seven seconds left gave the Cincinnati Bengals a dramatic 33-31 victory against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The win ended a four-game losing streak for the Bengals (3-4), while the Steelers (4-2) were beaten on the road for the first time this season.

In only the fourth match-up between two 40-plus quarterbacks, Joe Flacco threw for 342 yards and three touchdowns for the Bengals.

On the other side, Aaron Rodgers threw for 249 yards and four touchdowns but was intercepted twice.

A Jonnu Smith touchdown had helped the Steelers to a 10-0 lead before the Bengals responded with Ja’Marr Chase, who finished with 16 catches for 161 yards, and Tee Higgins going over the line as they took a 20-10 advantage.

Pittsburgh’s Pat Freiermuth and Cincinnati’s Noah Fant traded touchdowns before Darnell Washington got to the end zone for the Steelers.

Former NBA Most Valuable Player Russell Westbrook has signed with the Sacramento Kings, as he enters his 18th season.

The 36-year-old played the 2024-25 season with the Denver Nuggets, averaging 13.3 points, 6.1 assists and 4.9 rebounds in 75 games.

The nine-time All-Star signed for the Kings after becoming a free agent in June, once the Nuggets were eliminated in the Western Conference semi-finals.

Westbrook holds the NBA record for most triple-doubles with 203 and led the NBA in scoring in 2015 and 2017. He joins his seventh team since being drafted in 2008 by the Seattle Supersonics.

He has also played for the Houston Rockets, the Washington Wizards, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers.

“Russell embodies the identity we’re striving for in Sacramento,” said Kings general manager Scott Perry.

You have probably never noticed it, but Exeter’s star players have been paying tribute to one of the club’s former players every year for the past two decades.

Look carefully at the annual team photo of the Chiefs and you will see the ‘Jimmy Nine’.

“I was playing down at Penzance, three or four days before Christmas, and I broke my finger badly,” explains the man whom the salute is named after, Jimmy Tucker.

“Being hard as nails, I didn’t actually realise I did it, played all the match, but fast forward a few months and it turned out it was broken in six places so I took the decision to have it amputated.”

The genial back spent much of his career at Launceston – where he suffered his injury – before a short stint at Exeter from 2003 where the lack of a top half to his left ring finger became the stuff of legend.

“I thought it was a tradition that was from many moons before his age,” says current Exeter club captain Jack Yeandle, who has done the ‘Jimmy Nine’ many times.

“It’s been going since I was at the club.

“It’s been pushed through by the senior players at the time – we’re in the front row and there’s always a mention of Jimmy Nine and ‘make sure you get Jimmy Nine in’. As soon as you start getting towards the front row you’re making sure you do it.

“I’m making sure everyone does it today,” adds Yeandle ahead of the 2025-26 photo.

“It’s an important thing that’s been going on, and if I ever meet the guy I’ve got to make sure I give him a high four-and-a-half.

“It’s just a bit of fun, a bit of a laugh, and it’s good to see the tradition still going.”

Tucker, now 55, is something of a legend of Cornish rugby.

He played more than 350 games for Launceston over 13 years before an 18-month spell at Exeter that saw him score two tries in 29 games.

He played 50 times for the Cornish county side, helping them reach back-to-back County Championship finals at Twickenham in 1998 and 1999, scoring a try in the latter as the rugby-mad Duchy beat Gloucestershire 25-15 to win a third county title.

“Initially the guys at Exeter didn’t pick up on the fact and I didn’t make a big thing of it because I just was trying to focus on playing a bit of rugby,” Tucker says about his missing digit.

“But as with all rugby teams you have a bit of a social afterward, the odd drinking game happens and one fella who was the MC of the game referred to me as Jimmy Nine, and it seemed to have stuck ever since then.

“I scored a couple of tries at Exeter, on the first one I turned around and a big thing up there then was to acknowledge the try, celebrate the try.

“I turned around to see all my team-mates running up, led by the late Dave Sims, coming up giving us the Jimmy Nine, which was very flattering.

“I’d left and a couple of the old team-mates of mine forwarded a photo back in probably 2006 or 2007 and they continue to do that to this day.

Now Exeter’s team manager, Tony Walker was a former teammate of Tucker’s back in the early 2000s, along with current Chiefs boss Rob Baxter.

He is happy to see the tradition that celebrates his old friend continue – even if most of those doing it nowadays have little idea of where it originated.

“It’s been 20 years since the Nine sacrificed his finger for the boys,” he says.

“I know that sounds a little bit funny, but if you actually get the true story out of Jimmy it’s a bit of like ‘really?’ and yes it did happen and obviously he’s got the half finger to prove it.”

And as someone who remembers the original Jimmy Nine, Walker is glad that the tradition lives in, even if the origins may be lost in time by those who do it now.

“One thing I like about it is that the past is always remembered, and I think that’s a massive thing within a club,” he says.

“This is a little bit of the past that we always remember every team photo year, and I suppose when some people move on, the big thing is to make sure it’s handed on.

“So the young fellas have sort of got their first taste of it today and asking the question about why only nine fingers? Well, there we go. If you ever get to the bar and meet Jimmy Nine, have a pasty with him, I’m sure you’ll get the full story and understand.”

With his rugby career behind him, Tucker spends his time working on his farm around Launceston.

But he says Exeter’s players might have had to change their pose had a recent accident had a different outcome.

“Eighteen months ago I had a run-in with a circular saw, and I thought I was hard, but I wasn’t that hard,” he says with a smile.

“I nearly lost my thumb.