Samuel Iling-Junior (born 4 October 2003) is an English professional footballer who plays as a winger for Serie C Group A club Juventus Next Gen.
![]() Iling-Junior with Juventus U19 in 2021 | ||||||||||||||||
Personal information | ||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Samuel Iling-Junior[1] | |||||||||||||||
Date of birth | (2003-10-04) 4 October 2003 (age 19) | |||||||||||||||
Place of birth | England | |||||||||||||||
Position(s) | Winger | |||||||||||||||
Club information | ||||||||||||||||
Current team | Juventus Next Gen | |||||||||||||||
Number | 16 | |||||||||||||||
Youth career | ||||||||||||||||
2011–2020 | Chelsea | |||||||||||||||
2020–2021 | Juventus | |||||||||||||||
Senior career* | ||||||||||||||||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | |||||||||||||
2021– | Juventus Next Gen[lower-greek 1] | 7 | (3) | |||||||||||||
2022– | Juventus | 2 | (0) | |||||||||||||
National team‡ | ||||||||||||||||
2018 | England U15 | 1 | (0) | |||||||||||||
2018–2019 | England U16 | 8 | (0) | |||||||||||||
2019 | England U17 | 5 | (0) | |||||||||||||
2021–2022 | England U19 | 7 | (1) | |||||||||||||
2022– | England U20 | 3 | (0) | |||||||||||||
Honours
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*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 23:07, 29 October 2022 (UTC) ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 20:55, 10 October 2022 (UTC) |
A youth product of Chelsea and Juventus, Iling-Junior made his debut for Juventus U23 (the reserve team of Juventus) in the 2021–22 season. He also reached the UEFA Youth League semi-finals with the U19 squad, and won his first first-team call-up. In 2022–23, Iling-Junior made his debut in the Serie A and Champions League for Juventus.
Iling-Junior spent nine years at Chelsea from 2011 and 2020[3] and was promoted to the under-19s aged 16.[4] In 2020, he decided to leave Chelsea, attracting the interest from clubs such as Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Juventus; he signed a triennial contract with the latter in September of that year.[3][4]
On 7 October 2020, Iling-Junior was included in The Guardian's list of the 60 best talents in the world born in 2003.[5] On 2 April 2021, he was first called up by Juventus U23 alongside his U19 teammate Gabriele Mulazzi for a Serie C match against Alessandria.[6] He finished the 2020–21 season with four goals and seven assists in 28 matches for the under-19 team.[4]
On 22 August, he made his debut for Juventus U23 in a 3–2 win against Pro Sesto in the Coppa Italia Serie C.[4][7] His Serie C debut came on 3 October, replacing Nikola Sekulov in the second half against Mantova.[8] Iling-Junior was first called up to the first team on 21 May 2022, for a match against Fiorentina.[9]
In the 2021–22 season he improved his stats, having played 36 matches and scored 13 goals.[4] Iling-Junior also helped the U19s reach the UEFA Youth League semifinals, their best-ever placing in the competition.[10]
Iling-Junior scored his first professional goal on 3 September 2022, in the 13th minute in Trento–Juventus Next Gen,[lower-greek 1] their first season match.[11] He made his Serie A debut for the first team in a match against Empoli, on 21 October 2022, coming on as a substitute for Filip Kostić in the 84th minute.[4] Prior to his first-team debut, he had scored four goals with the Next Gen side (three in Serie C, and one in Coppa Italia Serie C)[4] and had already been called up to the first team a few times.[12]
On 25 October, Iling-Junior made his Champions League debut against Benfica, replacing Kostić in the 70th minute with Juventus trailing 4–1.[13] He assisted Arkadiusz Milik's 4–2 goal after six minutes, and provided a key pass for Weston McKennie's goal two minutes later.[13] Four days later, in an away match against Lecce, Iling-Junior assisted Nicolò Fagioli's winner after only 41 seconds from entering the pitch;[14] he sustained a blunt/sprain trauma to his right ankle after being fouled by Federico Di Francesco, ruling him out for 20 days.[15]
Iling-Junior was a member of the U17's 2019 Syrenka Cup winning squad.[16]
On 6 October 2021, he made his debut for the England U19s as a substitute during a 3–1 defeat to France in Marbella, Spain.[17] On 17 June 2022, Iling-Junior was included in the England U19 squad for the 2022 UEFA European Under-19 Championship,[18] which England won with a 3–1 extra time victory over Israel on 1 July.[19][20]
On 21 September 2022, he made his England U20 debut in a 3–0 win over Chile at the Pinatar Arena in Spain.[21]
Iling-Junior mainly plays a winger, either on the left or right. His versatility allowed him to be deployed various areas of the pitch by Juventus U19 coach Andrea Bonatti, namely as a left-back, left or right forward, attacking midfielder or central midfielder.[4] His main qualities are his goalscoring, dribbling and running abilities.[4][12]
Club | Season | League | Coppa Italia | Other | Total | |||||
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Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
Juventus U23[lower-greek 1] | 2021–22 | Serie C | 1 | 0 | — | 1[lower-alpha 1] | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
Juventus Next Gen[lower-greek 1] | 2022–23 | Serie C | 6 | 3 | — | 1[lower-alpha 1] | 1 | 7 | 4 | |
Total | 7 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 4 | ||
Juventus | 2022–23 | Serie A | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1[lower-alpha 2] | 0 | 3 | 0 |
Career total | 9 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 12 | 4 |
England U19
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Juventus F.C. – current squad | |
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Juventus Next Gen – current squad | |
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