Sassuolo and Italian national team player Manuel Locatelli has spoken on the experiences that he has shared with Inter central midfielder Nicolo Barella at youth national team level and what it meant to him to play alongside Barella in the full national team recently.

“In the national team I have shared a lot of experiences with Nicolo, since we were in the Under 17 team together,” Locatelli explained in an interview with Italian news outlet Croanche di Spogliatoio.

“We had a great time together, we played against national teams such as England who already had people playing in the Premier League and we said: ‘Damn, maybe we can get there too’.”

He added: “When we played together in the national team against the Netherlands it was a new emotion. It was a great achievement for both of us “.

Barella joined Inter in the Summer of 2019 from fellow Serie A side Cagliari and has been one of Inter’s best performing players in the time since with him earning no shortage of plaudits for his performances on the field in a Nerazzurri shirt.

The Sardinian born midfielder is widely regarded as one of the best young Italian midfielders out there at the moment and is under contract with Inter until the end of the 2023/24 season.

This season the 23-year-old has made seven appearances across all competitions to date and in just over 500 minutes on the park, he has provided two assists for his teammates.