Behold: The New Andre Pirlo: The New Midfield Meastro

Sandro Tonali is a centre midfielder. He was born in Lombardy, Italy and he plays for Italian side Brescia. Does this remind you of anyone in particular?
Let me expand, The 18-year-old's main strengths are his range of passing, his cool, calm and collected approach on the ball and his overall creativeness. Basically, he's the younger version of Andrea Pirlo and he even looks like the Italian maestro.
Seriously, just look at him lining up this free-kick during Italy's defeat to Portugal earlier. His stance even looks familiar to the great one.
Tonali, who has made 19 appearances for the club after making his debut in August last year, has been touted for great things by many and his performances at the U19 European Championships certainly caught the eye. Especially because he looks the absolute spitting image of Pirlo when he was younger. This picture proves my point.
Now, Italy manager Roberto Mancini has handed the youngster his first call-up for Italy's upcoming matches against Portugal and USA.
Roma, Juventus and Inter Milan have been linked with the talented 18-year-old in recent days. Just imagine if he ends up at Juventus, just like Andrea did all those years ago, It would certainly make a good story.
He has received phone calls from Juventus pair Guisuppe Marotta and Fabio Paratici in the last days, according to reports.

Here, we take a look at why he's sought after - and why he's been compared to Italian midfield maestro Andrea Pirlo

Born on May 8, 2000 in Lodi, a Northern Italian town near Milan, Tonali joined Brescia's youth ranks in 2012, when his former club Piacenza officially declared bankruptcy.
The youth coaches at Brescia decided to change his role on the pitch, switching him from an inventive and creative second striker to a regista, the deep-lying playmaker role embodied by a former Brescia player, Pirlo.

In his new position, Tonali powered through the youth ranks, often playing against older opposition and making his way into the development squad at 16 years of age.

He eventually made his professional debut on August 26, 2017, in a clash against Avellino and went on to make 19 more appearances throughout the rest of the campaign and has become a regular this season.
Tonali stood out in the Under-19 European Championships last summer, leading Italy to the final where they lost 4-3 to Portugal, establishing himself as one of the brightest young players in Italian football.

Playing style

The long hair is not the only trait that Tonali shares with Pirlo - both of them started out at Brescia in their early days, and were downgraded from a striker position to a role in midfield.
Most importantly, Tonali resembles Pirlo's movement on the pitch - he's calm and collected with the ball and the quality and quantity of his passes and his creativity going into the final third have seen pundits in Italy suggest he could be the heir to Pirlo's throne.
Tonali also takes charge of set-piece deliveries, and the most attentive viewers have even noticed how the youngster's run-up is very similar to Pirlo's.

What do they say?

Brescia coach Roberto Boscaglia: "Tonali will become a great player. I don't want to make any comparisons but in the game's dynamics he has got something special, like Pirlo."
Brescia team-mate Stefano Sabelli: "He surprised me. It shouldn't be taken for granted that an 18-year-old lad has such character, both inside and outside the pitch, and I congratulated him for that."
Tonali's representative Roberto La Florio: "Sandro Tonali is Sandro Tonali, he's not the new Pirlo, it's the opposite. While he's close to him in terms of position on the pitch and character, labelling him 'the new Pirlo' can only hurt him. At his age Pirlo wasn't even a regista, so if we want to exaggerate, Tonali at the same age is even stronger."