Napoli call up academy striker Pereyra for Frosinone

Milton Pereyra, an Argentine striker born in 2008, has been called up by Massimiliano Allegri to the Napoli first-team squad for the first time, ahead of Napoli-Frosinone on Saturday 10 October at 20:45 CET at the Maradona, the sixth round of Serie A. The giveaway is in the Primavera (the Under-19 side) squad list for its game with Pisa: Pereyra is missing from it, precisely because he has joined the senior squad for the official fixture.

Pereyra's call-up comes in a specific context. In attack and on the flanks, Napoli go into the Frosinone game with Favasuli out, Mathias Olivera a doubt with a strained right obturator muscle, and Giovanni Vergara sidelined with a soleus problem — a wide department already under scrutiny in recent days. Drawing from the Primavera, with such a thin squad, is the logical result rather than a technical gamble.

It is worth saying plainly: a call-up is not a debut, and a 2008-born player summoned out of necessity is not proof that a youth project is opening up. It is a door left ajar by absences, not one thrown open by a decision on merit — that will only be clear if and when Pereyra actually gets on the pitch. With the transfer window shut since 1 September and the squad fixed until January, though, looking at the club's own academy is the only route open when the injury list grows.

Napoli go into Saturday's game ninth with 7 points after five rounds, on the back of two straight positive results. Among the Frosinone squad list, it will soon be known whether there is room for Pereyra even just on the bench: the official list will arrive close to kick-off, with Allegri still working on the tactical shape between a 4-3-3, 3-4-2-1 and 4-2-3-1.