Last week, Torino defender Matteo Darmian completed a dream move to English Premier League giants Manchester United.
Torino are expected to cash around €20m for the 25-year-old who had joined Torino from Palermo for a fee less than €2m three years ago.
Darmian put pen to paper on a four-year contract at Old Trafford worth around €3m per season.
This transfer move amply testifies that investing in quality youths does indeed pay rich dividends for all stakeholders, starting with the selling club to the player himself and, potentially, also the national team.
Darmian is the latest Torino player to be involved in a big money move.
This time last year, Torino sold 2013/14 Serie A top marksman Ciro Immobile to Borussia Dortmund for just less than €20m.
Although the former Pescara hit-man was co-owned with city rivals Juventus, Torino were reported to have cashed in the region of €11m from the transfer of Immobile, who has just joined Europa League holders Sevilla on loan.
Originally, the co-ownership deal with Juventus had cost Torino in the region of €2.75m.
In the final days of last year’s summer transfer window, Alessio Cerci joined Atletico Madrid for €14m. Torino had invested less than €7m to acquire Cerci’s services from Fiorentina.
In these last few years, Torino club president Urbano Cairo proved he had a knack for selling up-and-coming players to the highest bidders.
Just two years ago, Torino offloaded central defender Angelo Ogbonna for €13m.
Ogbonna, a Torino youth product, became the first player to sign for Juventus after having captained city rivals Torino.
Back in 2009, relegated Torino transferred Alessandro Rosina to Zenit St Petersburg for €7m.
Other clubs have different strategies how to make ends meet.
For instance, Udinese prefer to sign relatively unknown foreigners at very low prices, develop them into quality players and then sell them to elite clubs, making a huge mark-up in the process.
Atalanta, and more recently Empoli, Sampdoria and Genoa, have all introduced promising youngsters from their own youth academies straight into their senior squads.
Sassuolo are considered to be Juve’s satellite club in that the Bianconeri prefer to ‘park’ some of their best youngsters there.
Backed by the profit registered from the sale of Darmian, Torino re-invested €10m to acquire the services of two up-and-coming players – Daniele Baselli and Davide Zappacosta – both former Italy U-21 internationals.
At Torino, these two players will have the opportunity to take their respective careers to the next level. Baselli is widely touted to be the heir apparent of Andrea Pirlo whereas Zappacosta is expected to plug the gap left by Darmian.
Torino have kept faith with veteran coach Giampiero Ventura who is doing well to spot hidden talent in Italian football.
He knows how to transform them into top athletes.
Indeed, Ventura also has the ability of reviving the ailing careers of some players.
Cerci is a case in point. The hugely talented winger has always been on top of his game whenever he was with teams coached by Ventura.
The former Bari trainer was the mastermind behind the rise to stardom of Darmian, Immobile, Cerci and Ogbonna. Apart from enabling the club to balance off its books by selling these players at a significant profit, Ventura has led Torino to a seventh-place finish in 2014 and ninth last season.
Meanwhile, Torino’s future appears to be rosy considering that last season they won their first youths league (Primavera) after a 23-year wait.
Many of the protagonists from that success have already been loaned out to Serie B clubs. Eventually, these players will be called back to the base once they prove themselves in second-tier football.
Ventura is shrewd enough not to expose his untried and untested players too soon.
Serbia centre-back Nikola Maksimovic, linked with both Napoli and Milan this summer, did not make his debut for Torino before their 2-0 away win at Udinese in December 2013, following his move from Red Star five months earlier.
The Torino case is particularly revealing in that investing in youths not only involves paying good money to acquire the best talent in circulation.
It also means bold decisions like appointing the right coaches who believe in youth policy and allows more playing time for young players to prove themselves, even at the expense of not obtaining instant success.