Simone Pafundi — Italy’s Next Superstar

Player Profile:

Name — Simone Pafundi

Height — 5 feet 5 inches (166cm)

Position — AM

DoB — 14/03/2006 (18)

Nationality — Italian

Club — Lausanne Sport (on loan from Udinese)

Games watched:

• Lausanne Sport 0–1 Young Boys (45 mins)
• FC Basel 1–2 Lausanne Sport (64 mins)
• Scotland U19 1–3 Italy U19 (all actions, Pafundi played 90 mins)

For a player who made his Italy debut at 16, I feel like Simone Pafundi is actually ridiculously unspoken about. Prior to starting this piece, I had heard of Pafundi but didn’t really know much about him. Now though, I’m convinced he’s set to be one of the world’s best in the years to come, and here’s why:

In Possession

In terms of pure dribbling ability, you probably won’t find many a better prospect in world football than Simone Pafundi. The young Italian has excellent fundamentals, reminiscent of Lionel Messi. Simone’s ball manipulation is absolutely ridiculous — he almost never takes a heavy touch when he has the ball, meaning that when he’s 1v1 up against a defender, it looks as if the ball is glued to his feet. Pafundi is also a master of what I’d call “no-touch dribbling”—he’s extremely calm when dribbling, often allowing the ball to do the work. This understanding of where the ball is and how it reacts to his touches is sensational.

Looking at some older clips, it’s clear to see he’s come on leaps and bounds in this area in the space of just a few months. His dribbling, especially at speed, is overall much more polished than it once was.

Pafundi often uses feints to create separation for himself to then get off a pass or a shot. One of the more common moves I saw was a simple feint one way before knocking the ball in the other direction. Although this sounds simple and quite easy to defend against, the youngster’s low centre of gravity and ability to change speeds when it suits means that he simply moves faster than the defender can react. Against elite defenders, Pafundi might not be able to pull this off so easily, but that would only really be a glaring issue if he was one-dimensional and that was his only move, and that he certainly is not.

On a few occasions, I saw Pafundi take a poor first touch when receiving the ball, though I don’t think this is much of a technique issue. Based on what I saw, I’d say he just wants to make something happen a tiny bit too much sometimes, and this desire grows when he knows he has a bit of space to take the ball into, leading to him trying to accelerate too quickly and his first touch bouncing off of him. He actually excels at receiving the ball in tighter spaces where he knows he can slow the game down to his optimal pace and use his technical gift to beat a defender.

Pafundi’s abilities with the ball are not just limited to dribbling either. His vision is great, and he times his more incisive passes absolutely perfectly to give his teammates the best chance of making something happen following a pass from him. As you could probably tell based on the above clip focused on his dribbling, his weighting of that final pass can be off sometimes. That being said, at other times it’s absolutely perfect, so I suspect this is another art he will master as he gains more experience.

Pafundi’s first time passes are excellent, and he is often used as a means of linking midfield to attack by having passes “bounced” off of him. These one touch knocks and lay-offs are very often of immense quality and easy for the receiver to control.

Finally, Pafundi’s shooting ability is just as classy as his passing and his dribbling. He strikes the ball thoroughly and cleanly, most often wrapping around it to produce a powerful, curled effort into the far side of the goal.

Team IP — Off the Ball

Off the ball, Pafundi is often positioned between the lines, where he can then link play upon receiving, or take the ball on the half-turn and go at the defence.

Pafundi is adept at finding spaces in these areas, though can sometimes look as if he lacks a bit of intensity in the way he moves around. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it doesn’t look great either. Pafundi does sometimes drop deep to receive and has a tendency to drift to the right, and I prefer when he does this as he makes himself easier to access for his teammates, especially at the current level he’s playing at where his peers may not have the ability to play as good passes through the lines.

One issue I do have, though, is that when the ball is in the final third, he seems to jog around and is generally reluctant to make runs in behind, which could force a defender to follow him and thus open up space for a teammate to receive.

Out of Possession

Unlike many technically gifted playmakers, who have the tag of being “lazy” without the ball, Pafundi is extremely switched on when defending. As Lausanne favoured more of a mid-block in the games I watched, I didn’t get to see the full scope of what he can do in terms of pressing high, but the signs were there. He is very aware of his surroundings and the danger that he may leave behind him when pressing, and this knowledge means that he usually knows the right occasions to jump up and put pressure on the ball carrier and follows pressing triggers well.

While he is impressive at defending when the ball is in front of him, he actually excels when having to track back. His lack of height means that he is positioned outside of the box on corners, and this is massively beneficial to his side due to the sheer pace he possesses, over both short and long distances.

On one occasion in the game vs. FC Basel, the opposition GK caught the ball following a corner and launched a long throw up the field to an attacker. Pafundi was quick to react and sprinted back from the edge of the box to deep inside his own half to make a tackle, denying a clear counter-attacking opportunity.

Mental Profile

Some of the most impressive things I noticed when watching Pafundi are actually more towards the psychological side of his game, which says a lot when the technical side is so good.

Pafundi’s concentration levels are extremely impressive — he never looks like he has zoned out or that he isn’t paying attention to the game around him, which enables him to have increased reaction times.

The leadership qualities he possesses are quite unbelievable. As an 18-year-old in a loan environment, where he’s only been for 2 months, you wouldn’t really criticise him for being a bit reserved, but Pafundi is the complete opposite. He wants to dictate the play. He points out passes to his teammates. He conducts the press from the front.

The most telling thing about him in this regard is that when his teammates ignore an order he points out, this will often draw quite a big reaction from him. Some might see it as petulant, but for me, it shows how desperately Pafundi wants to be the main man and has such confidence in his own abilities to read the game and lead the team that he feels betrayed when someone doesn’t follow an order he deems the best possible option.

Of course, if he were going around punching people in the face out of anger, I wouldn’t be praising this, but I just love the fact that he’s never one to hide and will always take that extra responsibility. Future captain material.

Areas for Improvement

For what it’s worth, I think Simone Pafundi is absolutely extraordinary for his age (just turned 18), and everything here is quite nitpicky, but could still help him take his game to the next level.

• Increased intensity without the ball. Adding a desire to run in behind, make decoy runs, and charge into the box for cut-backs, would be extremely beneficial to Pafundi’s game. The youngster’s off-the-ball movement is fine, but he could take it to a new level by inroducing some different dynamics more often.
• Aerial duels. Though Pafundi is never going to be proficient in the air due to his size, I do feel like it’s worth mentioning here. He hasn't won a single header in his eight games for Lausanne.
• Weighting of riskier passes. Something I think Pafundi is already improving at, but still has some way to go before he reaches his ceiling, is his ability to weight his long and defence-splitting passes. It’s only natural that at his age, he doesn’t have the perfect feel for how much weight a pass needs to be optimal for his teammate, but he’s shown flashes, and I’m confident he’ll keep on improving in this area.
• Ability to temper eagerness to make things happen. I already touched on this a bit, but Pafundi does sometimes get a bit overexcited, and this leads to him taking a poor first touch. The technical side of controlling the ball clearly comes naturally to him, so it’s disappointing on occasions where he spoils this by trying to play at too high of a tempo for his own good.

Conclusion

Overall, Simone Pafundi is an absolutely incredible prospect, probably Italy’s brightest at present. His mixture of raw pace, superb dribbling technique, and clean ability to strike the ball means he has the outlines of a world-class player, and I’m sure it won’t be too long before he reaches those heights. I wouldn’t feel comfortable placing a ceiling for Pafundi, as I genuinely don’t think there really is one. His game is excellent for his age, and the stuff he’s missing will likely come with maturity anyway. This boy will be a superstar.