How much competitive games those Handanovic, Cordaz, Acerbi, D'Ambrosio, Darmian, Dumfries, Gagliardini, Bellanova, Mhikitaryan, Gosens, Dalbert, Dzeko and Correa before 21? i'm curious to know. i'm doubt they even knew the gaming of the pitch before 22 yo.
I'l pick the stats based on the season they turned 21, if thats okay?
Cordaz - very little, but he's not exactly Inter quality anyway, he's here to fill a quotas role
Handanovic - already starting for Slovenia, 5 starts in Serie A + Coppa Italia, transfermarkt doesnt really go back this far, but wikipedia says he had played/started about 28 games by the time he turned 21 (approximately)
Acerbi had started at least 22 games by the end of the season in which he turned 21 - probably more, I cant really be bothered checking the loans of the seasons before he turned 21, according to wikipedia he played some games there but its mostly driven by the 08/09 season when he turned 21
Dambro looks like he had about 40 professional games under his belt by that time
Darmian was about the same figure - mostly on loan to Padova, but quite a few in Serie A with Palermo and some in Milan
Dumfries turning 21, just on wikipedia, had played about 72 professional games
Gags? When he turned 21 in 2015, he'd finished the season with a total of 35 Serie B games under his belt
Bellanova - when he turned 21 in May 2021, he completed that season with a total of 33 (by the looks of it) games under his belt
Mkhi - by 2010, he'd played something like 124 pro games across Armenia and Ukraine
Gosens? depends how you want to count it as a July birthday, but its either 53 pro games or 91 pro games
Dalbert turned 21 in 2014 Sept, so by the end of 2014-2015, he was up to 45 professional games (also not a great example of a player at Inter's level, though)
I dunno why you pick Dzeko, he's been playing for years - when he was 21 in 2007, he'd finish the season with 90 pro games (and 21 goals) under his belt
Correa - in 2015 (Aug 1994 baby so you decide how it falls), he'd played 64 Argentina Primera games, scoring 5 goals.
What's super interesting, imho, is the spread of levels these guys are playing at - and as you can see, most of them are already playing quite regularly by the time they turn 21. It's not quite true of Acerbi, Dambro or Darmian, but for the rest of them they mostly had. Gags is famously a late developer, and also clearly not up to Inter standards.
Satriano, by comparison, a total of 20 games, all from that specific season he turned 21.
The single most important thing for developing youth is top level game time when they're 17/18/19/20. Thats why I talk so much about having tracks and trajectories - if they arent getting the game time when they're 18/19/20, they just get left behind. And thats why, for me, I dont mind loaning the kids to Serie B or even building out an U23 team like Juve - we just need to get them "first team" game time. I know everyone's view of youth development is kinda like Wayne Rooney - out of nowhere some 17 year old is amazing, starts playing very regularly - OR on the other end of the spectrum like an Ian Wright, raw talent alone means from nowhere, even aged 21, they can break through into the top flight without any prior experience
sadly those are the unicorn cases. As with almost anything in life, its years of hard work, building upon successes (and failures) that get you to the summit. The kids who can really just 'make it' like Donna are unbelievably rare. But at the same time, if you dont have the foundation to build upon [of regular game time and experience], you will struggle to make it