Scamacca is a 23-year-old forward from Rome, Italy. After a breakout season for Sassuolo, he joined West Ham for £32.40 million in July.
Education
Scamacca was raised in Borgata Fidene, Rome’s northern periphery. He spent a lot of time on the streets of Borgata Fidene, trying to replicate the skills he saw AS Roma do on the TV.
His passion for football lead him to attending Delle Vittorie football school, and later Cisco Roma nursey.
Youth Career
Scamacca signed for Roma youth academy in 2012 aged 13. The Italian scored 34 goals in 30 games, winning the National Under-15 Championship.
Scamacca left the club at 16-years-old to join PSV Eindhoven’s youth team, where he would only make three appearances.
Club Career
In 2017, Scamacca returned to Italy to sign for Sassuolo. During his time there the Italian had four loan spells at Cremonese (2018), PEC Zwolle (2018-2019), Ascoli (2019-2020) and Genoa (2020-2021). Scamacca made 88 appearances across all loan spells, scoring 26 goals.
He returned to Sassuolo in 2021, where he finally had his breakout season. Scamacca scored 16 goals for the Neroverdi, the sixth highest amount across all of Serie A.
This caught the attention of West Ham, who beat clubs like Paris Saint Germain and Arsenal to Scamacca’s signature in July. Since arriving to East London, Scamacca has made 14 appearances, scoring six goals.
Moyes has High Hopes for the Italian
In a recent press conference, West Ham manager David Moyes said he’s been impressed with his new signing so far.
“I think I’ve been impressed by him from day one. Some of the stuff he has done is really good… The version we’ve got at the moment has done really good but we think he can go even better.”
International Career
Scamacca has played every level of international youth football for Italy, scoring 31 goals in 79 appearances across all age groups.
In September 2021, Scamacca received his first senior squad call up. He made his senior debut in a 5-0 win over Lithuania and has gone on to be capped eight more times.
Strengths
One of Scamacca’s main strengths is his link up play and his ability to drive the ball forward. This was on display for his first Premier League goal the other week against Wolves. Scamacca gets control of long ball in the middle of the pitch before taking the ball forward and out a pass to Bowen. The Italian was then rewarded for his progressive play when the ball fell to him and he struck it into the back of the net.
West Ham fan Steve Hayhurst believes Scamacca is “technically proficient and a quality finisher”.
Weakness
When comparing Scamacca to fellow West Ham striker Antonio, the main issue he seems to have is adapting to the speed of league.
West Ham fan Rory Harris said, “I don’t think he has as much pace as Antonio”.
The Italian has also struggled to convert more chances into goals at times. Scamacca missed three great opportunities to score against Southampton, and Rory thinks he “could have and arguably should have had another couple goals against Fulham.”
Individual Honours
Copa Italian goal scorer in 19/20 season and he shared it in 20/21
Interesting Facts
Scamacca’s football idol is Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The Italian faced off against him twice last season, scoring in a 3-1 win against Ibrahimovic’s AC Milan.
Editor: Joshua Owoaje