Cesare Casadei: a midfielder with the buried soul of a nine

The definitive SCOUTED50 profile on Chelsea's enigmatic but stalled midfielder.

SCOUTED50 is our collection of the fifty young talents we believe are best positioned to break into the mainstream during 2023/24. Throughout the season, we’ll be detailing all fifty in definitive profiles.

Read the full list here. Cesare Casadei came 13th in our ranking.

This profile was produced as part of a commercial collaboration with SkillCorner, SCOUTED’s official data partner. SkillCorner’s tracking and performance data is used by more than 150 of the world’s biggest clubs, leagues and confederations. Learn more.

All stats correct as of 13/6/2024 unless otherwise noted.

At 21, Cesare Casadei has been on a — let’s say, interesting — career path.

He was always a standout junior, winning the extremely competitive Campionato Primavera as a teenager with Inter, while competing strongly at the Under-19 Euros in 2022.

His dominance in those competitions ultimately earned him his Chelsea move, a deal caught in the winds of Inter’s deal to re-sign Romelu Lukaku on loan after they sold him to the Blues a year earlier.

Things have been up and down ever since. After spending six months acclimatising to life in England, Casadei was sent on loan to a struggling Reading side, where he performed very well despite their eventual relegation.

A few weeks later, he stepped back into national team colours and completely dominated the 2023 Under-20 World Cup, winning the Golden Ball and Golden Boot, with seven goals in seven games on Italy’s path to the final.

From there, one could have foreseen Casadei stepping up and playing a big role at club level — although not necessarily at Chelsea — in 2023/24. That never eventuated.

His loan to Leicester (incidentally under new Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca) was not terrible, but it was definitely stop-start, with lots of minutes off the bench and only eight starts from a possible 25.

But he did start his last two matches for Leicester, as a Wilfred Ndidi injury seemingly opened a path to a run in the starting XI - then Chelsea recalled him.

With injuries to a host of midfielders, his parent club claimed to need the Italian at home. But he played just 68 minutes of senior football across 11 Premier League appearances in the back half of the season.

I don’t normally do a Wikipedia-style recap of a player’s career, but in Casadei’s case the context is crucial: it’s a map of all the variables that can obstruct a young player from launching themself into the professional scene.

Let’s make one thing clear. Casadei is ready, right now, to play lots of senior minutes, and probably has been for two years. He is a big lad and more than capable of holding his own at a high level, even if he’s a fairly esoteric footballer - meaning the circumstances under which he’ll thrive are narrow.

Let’s explore those circumstances and peel back the layers of a nuanced but no-less exciting talent.

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In this profile:

• A killer with the tendency to float through games

• A refined McTominay/Fellaini hybrid

• How to unleash a gamewrecking talent

• How a homecoming could unlock his potential