Enrico Baldini

After signing with Cittadella in the winter transfer window of 2021, Enrico Baldini has emerged and came alive during the Serie B season. Previously at Inter, Baldini showcased his talents last season, especially in the promotion playoffs.

Baldini was born on November 13, 1996 in Massa, close to Pisa. He moved to Inter Milan in 2011 from his own region. Two years later, Baldini was making his Italian youth national team debut. It came in a friendly against Ukraine with the Under 18’s. A month later in October 2013, Baldini was part of the Italian U17’s in the U17 World Cup. He played two games in the tournament, in a combined total of 45 minutes against New Zealand and Uruguay.

It was happening quick for Enrico. One year after his Italian youth national team debut, he made his professional debut for Inter. On December 11, 2014, Baldini came on in the 90th minute of Inter’s Europa League game against Qarabag.

He was improving fast at the Primavera level as well. Leading his team to the final of the Coppa Italia Primavera, Inter won against Juventus to win the cup. In addition to the Coppa Italia at the Primavera level, Inter also won the Viareggio Cup, defeating Hellas Verona 2-1, with Baldini playing 25 minutes.

His youth career was finished in 2016, and Inter loaned Enrico to Pro Vercelli. He played six matches in that Serie B season, with his first league game coming against Cesena in September of 2016. A year later, he was sold by Inter to Ascoli in the same division. It was with Ascoli where Baldini scored his first professional goal. In the 87th minute in a close league match with Cesena, Enrico scored to make it 2-0 for the visitors.

It would prove to be a vital goal for Ascoli. In a relegation battle, those three points were enough to clinch a playoff against Virtus Entella. A hard fought draw at home sealed Ascoli’s survival in Serie B. Baldini came off in the second leg for current teammate Christian D’Urso.

In the start of the 2018/19 season, Baldini began well. Playing the first 7 out of 8 games, he looked to be a good player to have at the club. Unfortunately for Baldini, though, a thigh injury saw him miss almost three months. He never fully came back to the form he was in earlier that season. He played only five games after that injury.

The next season, Baldini transferred to Fano in Serie C. Until the pause of the league due to Covid, Baldini played in every Serie C game, raking six assists and two goals. Fano were early hanging on in the relegation battle. With the playoff spot up for grabs, Fano entered a relegation playoff against Ravenna. Baldini started every game in that tie, as the team won in both legs to secure safety.

Fano were almost in identical form as the last season. Struggling for points, Baldini played 15 matches for half a season. In the January window, he made the move to Cittadella.

Baldini was back in Serie B, and straight away he was involved playing. Despite only scoring two times in Serie B play, Baldini and Cittadella entered promotion playoffs. In the semifinals against promotion favorites Monza, Baldini turned lots of heads when he scored a hat trick in the first leg. The hat trick was the winner, as over two legs Citta won 3-2, and were off to the final.

The granata lost their bid to Serie A, falling to Venezia despite a brave effort. So far, Baldini has shown a lot of quality and talent in the final third, and is certainly gonna be a big part of our season. We can’t wait to see what he has in store for this campaign.