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Micah Richards ‘has heard’ that Premier League rivals Arsenal and Manchester City are interested in signing Italy defender Riccardo Calafiori after Euro 2024.
Calafiori, 22, impressed during the group stage as reigning champions Italy finished second in Group B to advance to the knockout stages.
The Italians, who beat England on penalties in the Euro 2020 final, now turn their attentions to a last-16 tie against Switzerland and a potential quarter-final meeting with Gareth Southgate’s Three Lions.
Calafiori was named in Italy’s Euros squad following an impressive season at Bologna, who finished fifth in Serie A, but only made his international debut in a friendly at the start of the month.
Despite his inexperience at international level, the 22-year-old played every minute of Italy’s group campaign and looks well on his way to enjoying a long and fruitful career.
Ex-England defender Richards says Calafiori has been ‘amazing’ for Italy and suspects he will be the subject of interest from Arsenal and Manchester City later in the summer.
‘Calafiori has been amazing,’ Richards said on The Rest is Football podcast. ‘He’s the one everyone’s talking about. All the big clubs are linked with him.
‘He plays his football for Bologna, and I’ve heard Arsenal and Man City are interested.
‘He’s really good on the ball, can score goals, can defend. And when we’ve been doing the games, I’ve been concentrating on [Alessandro] Bastoni, but Calafiori has been equally impressive.’
Despite being the European Champions, Italy were not considered one of the favourites for the tournament in Germany and remain one of the outsiders ahead of the last-16 ties.
But ex-Premier League striker Chris Sutton expects Luciano Spalletti’s side to ‘find a way to win’ their last-16 clash with Switzerland and set up a meeting with England, providing the Three Lions do the job against Slovakia.
‘Switzerland ending up drawing with Germany in their final group game but they were ahead for a long time and it looked like they would top Group A,’ Sutton told BBC Sport.
‘I was speaking to Danny Murphy about this game because he is co-commentating on it for BBC TV, and he fancies Switzerland strongly, but I never really agree with Danny so I am going to go with Italy.
‘They are the holders and they found a way to get the result they needed against Croatia in their last match in Group B.
‘In fairness, although they only scored their equaliser in the 98th minute, they didn’t deserve to lose anyway because they’d had the better chances.
‘I just have a feeling Italy will do the same here, and find a way to win, although it is going to very close. Maybe 1-0 Italy.’
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