The fleet-footed rising star of Serie A attracting interest from Man Utd & Aston Villa

Raoul Bellanova is having one hell of a season, and has been in particularly sizzling form for Torino since the turn of the year – and that has not gone unnoticed, with scouts from both Manchester United and Aston Villa reportedly spotted in the stands watching the Italian full-back in action.

A detailed story from Turin-based newspaper Tuttosport claimed that both clubs have been keeping tabs on the 23-year-old, who has stepped up substantially this season after a rather peripatetic start to a career. Torino are the sixth club that the AC Milan academy product has played for in five seasons of senior football, but also the club at which he has finally hit his straps.

An extremely attack-minded full-back, Bellanova has five assists and a goal to his name in Serie A this season and has impressed in a role which sees him spend far more time as a winger than in a defensive role – and there is mounting speculation that the he will add to his 21 Under-21 caps by getting his first call-up to the Italian national side ahead of the March international break. His star has risen quickly.

Bellanova left Milan when he was 19 without appearing for the first team, signing for Bordeaux in France but spending most of the next few years on a string of loan deals back in Italy. Having turned out for Atalanta and Pescara, he was signed on a loan-to-buy by Cagliari in 2021, only to be immediately loaned to Inter Milan once the transfer was made permanent, where he acted as an understudy to Denzel Dumfries.

His performances as a back-up were sufficient to persuade Torino to part with a reported €7m (£6m) for his services, and it’s in Turin that he found his best form, and where he has attracted attention from the Premier League. A seventh club in six years could well be on the cards, and Tuttosport speculate that his market value may now be in the €20-25m (£17-21.5m) range.

While he may go down on the team sheet as a wing-back, he’s far more ‘wing’ than he is ‘back’. Defensively, he doesn’t put up big numbers. His tackle success rate is very solid, for instance, but he only averages around one successful tackle per game and recovers the ball fewer than four times per 90 minutes.

He is quick and physically impressive but is a player who hassles and harries wingers while he tracks back rather than a player who has the kind of positional nous to protect his side of the field throughout the game. Bellanova is a player you want in a direct, wide and aggressive system which presses high and wants to get from back to front at speed.

He excels going forward. He is an excellent crosser of the ball with good dribbling skills, and while his pace and technique don’t translate into a massive dribbling success percentage, he can burst past opposing wide players and has good judgement when it comes to deciding whether to pass, cross or take his man on.

You can see some of the confidence he has with the ball at his feet in this clip of an assist he picked up against Roma just last weekend – sending his opposite number one way and then the other before picking his moment perfectly to send a well-weighted cross into the back post to be headed home by Colombian striker Duván Zapata:

He’s flourishing at Torino because of the focus placed on the offensive side of his game by manager Ivan Jurić – at previous clubs, in a slightly more reserved role which included occasional games as a centre-half – he played adequately but not exceptionally. If you need someone who has the speed and ball skills to get the ball forward down the flanks quickly and effectively, he’s an excellent candidate, but managers looking for a more conservative option should perhaps look elsewhere.

That makes United’s interest intriguing. Under Erik ten Hag, they have been fairly conservative with their full-backs, preferring them to be defenders first and attacking outlets second. They have, however, struggled to get players up in support of the forward line in the more direct system they’ve used this year, and Bellanova’s pace and threat out wide could help to change that. Although very similar in terms of physical profile to Aaron Wan-Bissaka, who has just one year left on his contract at Old Trafford, Bellanova is his opposite in almost every other regard.

At Villa, one could see him providing stiff competition for Matty Cash – they both have fine delivery of the ball but Bellanova is likely a little faster and stronger, giving him an extra edge going forward. It also wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine him backing Leon Bailey up on the right wing, as Cash did earlier in the current season to great effect.

Wherever he goes next, he needs to play for a team which wants him to push on up the field as far as possible. He’s playing his best football in a role not dissimilar to that which Trent Alexander-Arnold plays at Liverpool, with the same drawbacks in terms of needing to be covered in behind. He could easily boost United or Villa’s attacking output, but would leave gaps in the defence for other teams to exploit.

It's worth noting that Tuttosport stop short of suggesting that he is a priority target for either team. They claim that Villa were also in Italy scouting Dumfries, Inter’s right-back from their run to the Champions League final last year, and for whom Bellanova was brought on in the second half against Manchester City. United have also been linked with a bid for Dumfries on a number of occasions, and watching Bellanova could have been a sideshow for both sides.

But it appears that he is making his way onto the shortlists of some of the Premier League’s biggest clubs – and if he can maintain his fantastic recent form for a little longer, then he might find himself creeping up those lists very quickly. Bellanova offers pace, energy and a substantial attacking threat, and is improving his game as quickly as he can get to the byline.