Pinamonti's Nerazzurri story | VIDEO

Excitement and unbridled joy. In Inter’s first match since becoming the Champions of Italy, Andrea Pinamonti controlled Barella’s pass, watched as the ball bounced and fired home with his right foot. Quickly embraced by his teammates, tears were almost rolling down his face. He’d just scored his first goal for Inter. Well, for the first team of course. Because Pinamonti’s Nerazzurri story began several years ago, with the Italian youngster bagging 52 goals while part of the Club’s youth ranks.

From Cles in Trentino to Inter following a spell at Chievo. Andrea Pinamonti comes from a family of Interisti and, when he was younger, dreamt of playing for the Nerazzurri. As he went from pitch to pitch and scored goal after goal, this was his aim. Chievo also contributed to his development, but, for him, it was all about Inter.

In 2009, he won player of the tournament at the Memorial Prisco. As a result, Roberto Samaden, Inter’s Elite Academy Director, presented him with Davide Santon’s shirt. Then, the dream started to materialise: Inter came calling in 2013.

And that’s where his Inter journey began. He started to climb the Nerazzurri youth ranks, scoring 17 goals for the U15s, once for the U16s, 14 times for the U17s and then on 20 occasions for the Primavera. A total of 52. He was a key player for the U19 side, helping them win the league twice (2016/17 and 2017/18), the Viareggio Cup (2018) and the Coppa Italia (2018). Plenty of goals and plenty of opportunities to practise his signature bow and arrow celebration.

There was also disappointment during his Elite Academy experience: the defeat in the Allievi Nazionali A B U17 Scudetto final in 2016. It was a match which also involved Alessandro Bastoni, who found the net in stoppage time to deny Inter victory. Atalanta then ran out winners in stoppage time.

As for Italy, Pinamonti has featured for all of the Azzurri’s youth teams from U15 level and currently has two goals to his name for the U21s (in nine appearances). He also finished as a European Under-19 Championship runner-up.

His story with Inter’s first team began when he'd just turned 17 years old: 8 December 2016 was the date, the Europa League was the competition. He played as a starter, and he did so against Sparta Praha at San Siro. What’s more, he set up Eder to score with a great bit of play. In total, he made five appearances between 2016/17 and 2017/18. His gesture before taking to the pitch is now well-known: he uses his hand to ‘polish’ the Inter badge.

In 2018/19, he signed for Frosinone on loan and went on to score five goals in 27 appearances in Serie A. The following season, he wore Genoa’s shirt. He found the net five times in 32 appearances in the Italian top flight, while he also bagged twice in two matches in the Coppa Italia.

It was then time to return to the Nerazzurri. So far this season, he’s made eight appearances. His fantastic finish against Sampdoria was his first first-team goal.