There is an invisible thread that unites Australia to Calabria, passing through the fields of Italian football. His name is Antonio Arena and he is one of the most interesting names on the Italian youth scene. A Roma player, at just 16 years old he entered and scored the goal to make it 2-2 in the round of 16 of the Italian Cup between the Giallorossi and Torino. On Wesley’s cross from the left he broke away from the defender with a great movement waiting for the ball and then turned it into the net, thus finding the equalizer 30 seconds after he entered the field in place of Bailey.
Born in Australia on 10 February 2009, thousands of kilometers from Reggio Calabria, the town of his grandparents who emigrated to the country of kangaroos, but originally from Taurianova. Father Antonino and mother Melissa holding him tightly in their arms.
Antonio Arena has dual nationality, he chose to wear the Italy shirt at youth level, joining the Under 17 national team. A left-footed center forward, Arena combines physicality and technical quality, characteristics that are increasingly rare to find in such a young attacker. His game is made up of presence in the area, protection of the ball and, above all, an eye for goal: a natural instinct that led him to write a page in the history of Italian football before he even reached adulthood. His name has in fact entered the archives as the first footballer born in 2009 to score a professional goal in Italy. A record that weighs heavily, but which also tells of the precociousness of his talent. The feat came on his debut in Serie C with the Pescara shirt, when Antonio Arena was just 16 years and 25 days old. A dream debut, enhanced by a network that turned the spotlight on him at a national level.