Nicolò Tresoldi’s first appearance at San Siro became the kind of night that can alter a young striker’s place in a season. The 22-year-old Club Brugge forward struck three times against Inter, helping his side impose a high press from the opening stages and leaving the stadium with the match award in his hands.
For Tresoldi, a Milan supporter, the occasion carried a personal weight beyond the Champions League result. His father Emanuele, a former defender who played for Atalanta, Ravenna and Gubbio among others, made three appearances at San Siro as a left-back. This time, Nicolò was watched by family and friends as he produced the first major Italian chapter of his senior career.
“Milan fans had been sending me messages and giving me energy,” Tresoldi said. “We pressed Inter from the start and did not allow them any room. For me, it felt a little like a derby.”
After the final whistle, he lay on the San Siro pitch and looked up at the stands, visibly moved by the occasion. “It was an incredible evening, a dream. Having my family and friends there made it even more special. I still cannot quite believe it.”
A complete striker’s evening
Tresoldi’s treble came in three different forms: a penalty driven high into the net, a close-range finish after reacting quickest in the area, and another goal from inside the box. He also struck the crossbar during a display that underlined both his sharpness and composure.
The Inter match took him to nine goals in 11 appearances this season. Club Brugge arrive as reigning Belgian champions, while Tresoldi was also the leading scorer in the previous Belgian league campaign.
His European goals have increasingly come against prominent opponents. Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Monaco and Inter have all been punished by the forward, whose confidence in front of goal has become one of Brugge’s strongest attacking themes.
From Gubbio to Germany
Tresoldi’s route to this level did not follow the usual Italian academy path. As a teenager, he was turned down by several clubs, including Milan, Juventus, Bologna, Fiorentina and Atalanta, with doubts raised about his level and his commitment while he was also playing tennis.
He had been a highly competitive junior tennis player, reaching a 3.3 ranking in 2017 and training alongside Luca Nardi. He was part of Italy’s Under-12 tennis set-up and has previously described himself as being among the country’s stronger players in his age group.
Football nevertheless became his priority. In the 2016-17 season, he scored 12 goals for Fontanelle’s Giovanissimi Regionali side in Gubbio, on pitches close to fields of sunflowers. His coach Marco Bedini recalled a player willing to remain after training to work on a centre-forward’s movements.
Bedini placed him up front despite Tresoldi not yet possessing the physical frame normally associated with the role. The decision formed part of a plan agreed with his father and the club’s youth leadership, at a point when the youngster had little experience of football at that standard.
In 2017, he moved to Hannover because of his mother’s work. Germany offered the development pathway that had not opened in Italy, and he has since scored 16 goals in 26 matches for Germany’s Under-21 team.
Italy and Germany await his decision
The forward’s international future remains unresolved. Eligible for both Italy and Germany, Tresoldi has spoken with Jürgen Klopp and Roberto Mancini about his position, while continuing to focus on youth international football.
“I explained to both of them how I see the situation,” he said after the Inter match. “For the moment I am enjoying the youth teams, then we will see. We have a European Championship to win, the same competition my father won with Italy.”
For now, Club Brugge have the immediate benefit of a striker in rich form. Yet the San Siro performance has also brought the larger question closer: whether a player shaped in Germany, but raised with Italian football in his imagination, will eventually choose the Azzurri or remain with the country that gave him his decisive opportunity.
