George Puscas is an 18-year old Romanian forward, who plays for Internazionale Milano. He joined the club from Liberty Oradea in 2013, although he had also trained with Arsenal for a short period. He is a fairly versatile player as he can play as a center forward, second striker, or a left winger. He is a very technical player with great football intelligence and maturity for a player his age, as well as great finishing and the ‘killer’ instinct when it comes to scoring goals. His dribbling, touch, and pace are all up to scratch as well, although his stamina and strength may need work as he tries to adapt to the level of the Serie A at his young age (he was exhausted after 60 minutes in the Cup game he started against Napoli).
Puscas has scored 16 goals in 11 matches for Inter’s Primavera side this season, as well as 4 goals in 7 games for Romania U19 and 2 in 3 for Romania’s U21 side, including one in a friendly against Italy. Although Puscas was named to Inter’s bench for a Serie A match last season, he had not featured in an actual Serie A game until recently (as well as a couple Coppa Nazionale games).
In Inter’s 3-1 loss to Sassuolo at the start of the month, George bagged only 12 minutes of game time and still made a significant impact on the game. He showed more than Podolski did and was played out wide on the left wing, with one particularly great run down to the box and a shot that was well-saved by the opposition keeper.
That chance can be viewed at 4:00 on the video on this page.
He also scored for Inter’s first team in a friendly against Haladas from the Hungarian top flight.
Puscas also started and played most of the cup game against Napoli, showing very good signs on the ball and intelligence off it. He is a player that plays without fear and is already seemingly both mature enough to have himself a solid spot in the first team and is well-trained with loads of talent. Mancini even recently said that he is a better option than Cassano when there were rumours of him returning from Parma. In recent weeks, he has become a regular in making the Serie A matchday squads for the club.
Although Mancini has not subbed him on or started him much, he is expected too soon with the likes of Podolski not really stepping up to the plate, and so him and Bonazzoli could be the young guns to make a real impact up front given the chance. Additionally, Corriere della Sera just reported that Inter will renew his contract and transfer him permanently to the first team in the coming days, which is a big step forward for the young lad and (hopefully) a sign of things to come.
With more experience and the right nurturing, he could very well turn into a world class player for both club and country; maybe even turn out to be a legend like his Hungarian namesake Ferenc Puskas, after whom the FIFA Puskas Award is named.
Written by Filip Buduru
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