Having shone with the Azzurrini at the 2023 U-20 World Cup, Tommaso Baldanzi is predicted to be a mainstay of the Azzurri squad in the future.
Tommaso Baldanzi was born on March 23, 2003 in Poggibonsi, a municipality in the Province of Siena, Tuscany region, Italy. His journey to becoming a footballer began in 2009, when he was 6 years old and joined the Castelfiorentino junior team, one of the local Tuscany teams whose headquarters is not far from his hometown, Poggibonsi.
In Castelfiorentino, two years later, Baldanzi’s talent was noticed by two leading Italian clubs from the Tuscany region, namely Empoli and Fiorentina, but in the end Empoli became Tomasso Baldanzi’s next destination.
In 2011, at the age of 8, the young man who is familiarly called Tommi joined the Empoli academy, one of the best football schools in the Land of Pizza which has produced names such as Vincenzo Montella, to Antonio “Toto” Di Natale, both of whom are living legends of the Italian National Team.
At the Empoli academy, Baldanzi was a mainstay at every age level in the academy until in 2019, at the age of 16, he became part of the Empoli U-16 team coached by Antonio Buscè that won the 2018/2019 Campionati Giovanili U-16 competition, a junior sector tournament organized by the FIGC for U-16 teams, whose participants came from the academies of Serie A and Serie B clubs.
Empoli U-16 Team, Italian Champions 2019 (Photo: figc.it)
Empoli’s junior squad won the national championship after a narrow 4-3 win over Inter U-16 in the final held in Ravenna in mid-June 2019.
In the tight final match, Tomasso Baldanzi appeared as a starter until the final whistle was blown where he managed to register his name on the scoreboard with a goal with his left foot.
Less than a month after becoming champion in the U-16 national championship, Tommaso Baldanzi was officially promoted to the Empoli U-19 team in early July 2019.
In the Empoli U-19 team, in the 2020/2021 season, his second year there, the young man who idolizes Paulo “La Joya” Dybala led his team to win the Scudetto Primavera after defeating Atalanta U-19 in the final with a score of 5-3.
In the final against the Bergamo team, Tommaso Baldanzi performed wildly by scoring two goals and one assist, which ended with him being crowned the best player in the tournament.
In 2020, when Baldanzi had only been with the Primavera U-19 team for one season, he was called up by Alessio Dionisi, Empoli’s head coach to the first team. On October 28, 2020, he made his debut with the Empoli first team at the age of 17 in a Coppa Italia match against Benevento which ended in a 4-2 victory for Empoli.
In 2022, on May 21, Baldanzi was again called up to the first team, this time by Empoli’s new architect, Aurelio Andreazzoli, to face Atalanta in the final phase of the 2021/2022 Serie A competition, although he only filled the bench.
In the 2022/2023 season, Paolo Zanetti came as the new first team coach. This is where the turning point of Tomasso Baldanzi’s career with the Empoli first team began.
The attacking midfielder who was nicknamed “The Little Big Buddha” by Antonio Buscè (his former coach in the academy team) seemed to have impressed Paolo Zanetti in training sessions, so Zanetti also praised Baldanzi.
“Baldanzi for me is a future champion. I am lucky to be able to coach a player like him” (Paolo Zanetti)
Tomasso Baldanzi finally made his Serie A debut on 29 August 2022 against Lecce in an away match that ended in a 1-1 draw where Baldanzi played as a starter for the full 90 minutes.
In his second appearance on 31 August 2022, Tommaso Baldanzi scored his first goal in the Italian Serie A League, repaying Zanetti’s faith in him in a home match against Hellas Verona that ended in a 1-1 draw.
On 23 January 2023, Empoli traveled to Milan to face hosts Inter, another turning point in the career of the young man who idolizes AC Milan.
Once again, Baldanzi became an annoying bugbear for the Nerazzurri, after burying the dreams of the Inter youth team in 2019, he this time ruined the Curva Nord’s hopes of seeing their beloved team pick up three points at home.
Coming on as a substitute in the 64th minute to replace Nicolò Cambiaghi, Baldanzi didn’t need long to break through Inter’s goal in the 66th minute after continuing Nedim Bajrami’s pass with a left-footed shot. Empoli won 1-0, which ended with Baldanzi was chosen as Man of the Match in the match.
At the end of the 2022/2023 season, Baldanzi had made 26 appearances and scored 4 goals, making the player whose playing style is often compared to Papu Gomez begin to establish his position in the Empoli first team.
Baldanzi’s achievements at the academy level since the 2018/2019 season until his debut in Serie A with Empoli in 2022/2023 made Carmine Nunziata, the coach of the Italian U-20 team, call him up to the national team for the U-20 World Cup competition held in Argentina.
Together with Casadei, Pafundi, and other young Italian talents who were called up to the Azzurri, Baldanzi performed extraordinarily by leading the blue troops to the final of the tournament against Uruguay.
Throughout the tournament, Baldanzi was Carmine Nunziata’s mainstay where he appeared in all seven matches played by the Azzurrini from the opening match against Brazil in Group D to the final match at the Estadio Diego Armando Maradona, La Plata. Baldanzi scored two goals in the tournament, one goal when Italy eliminated England 2-1 in the Round of 16 and another goal when Italy defeated Colombia 3-1 in the Quarter Finals.
In the final match, Baldanzi and his compatriots’ progress was stopped when they met Uruguay after losing narrowly 1-0. The Azzurri U-20 squad had to be satisfied with finishing the tournament as runners-up. Despite the results, it was still a proud achievement for Baldanzi et al who were seen by the domestic public as heroes of Italian football.
His performance in the U-20 World Cup made AS Roma, who had been interested in Baldanzi’s talent for a long time, immediately move to recruit him from Empoli. As a child who idolizes Paulo Dybala, his arrival is interpreted by many as Dybala’s backup in Roma as well as anticipation if Paulo Dybala leaves the capital team one day.
Baldanzi arrived in the Italian capital with an agreement of around 15 million Euros between the Giallorossi and Empoli. In Rome, the player who is identical with the number 35 jersey at Empoli is back wearing the number 35 shirt. Since arriving at Trigoria in early 2024, Baldanzi has appeared 13 times with the Roma Wolves team. Although he has not scored a goal or provided an assist, that is because he has only been in Roma for half a season.
Under the tutelage of Daniele De Rossi, and the help of his idol Paulo Dybala, Tomasso Baldanzi is a young Italian player who is worth waiting for his performance with the Giallorossi in the 2024/2025 Serie A season.
Tommaso Baldanzi is one of the most talented young Italian players. He is a classic number ten type of player with a modern touch.
This AS Roma attacking midfielder is good at movement without the ball, great at dribbling, has good shooting from outside the penalty box, and is agile in creating. Everything an attacking midfielder needs.
The most important thing about Baldanzi is that he is good at giving passes and agile in transitions. These last two points are very identical to Italian Catenaccio football which relies on fast counterattacks by relying on passing balls and lightning transitions when it is his turn to attack.
These series of factors are the reasons why Baldanzi is predicted by many Italian football fans to fill the main position in the Azzurri midfield in the future.
ASL
