When this profile first ran in December 2019, SPAL under Leonardo Semplici were chasing a third straight Serie A survival, the kind of challenge that defined their season every year. Among the names to watch, alongside the likes of Manuel Lazzari who had just left for Lazio after their climb up the divisions, was a 22-year-old winger starting to catch the eye: Gabriel Strefezza.
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Here is what we saw then, in the tense we filed it. The scouting sheet read: born April 18, 1997, São Paulo, Brazilian and Italian, 168cm, right-footed, right midfielder at SPAL.
Who is Gabriel Strefezza?
The São Paulo-born forward had settled quickly into Italian football after arriving in 2016 straight from the Corinthians nursery. Brought in as an over-quota player for Roberto Rossi’s Primavera, he had spent two seasons on loan at Cremona before returning to base, the whole idea being to bank minutes and experience fast. He wanted the strength and match sharpness to compete for a real role.
What was Gabriel Strefezza’s style of play?
Strefezza was one of the brighter surprises of that SPAL side. Humble, and comfortable in the game whether attacking or defending. Like most good midfielders he cared about the team over personal glory. In his own box he was aware of the opposition’s movement, and defensively he tracked his man. Going forward he found strong positions and picked out team-mates with his passing. It was a special profile, and we wrote at the time that we would not be surprised to see him become one of the better midfielders in Italy.
What were Gabriel Strefezza’s strengths?
Strefezza did not have much physical explosiveness, but he made up for it with a high technical level, the kind of trait that can turn into something lethal. He was eclectic, able to blend different styles inside one game. His movement off the ball was a joy to watch, and he read the direction of play before most. He got past markers with quick pace and dribbling, and leaned on passing, crossing, vision, pace and stamina. The young Brazilian was determined to take his game up a level, and we backed him to draw offers from bigger clubs in time.
What were Gabriel Strefezza’s weaknesses?
At 168cm he was never going to win physical or aerial battles. Defensively his marking was shaky, and under sustained team pressure he could look lost and struggle to help out at the back. That is a normal trade-off for a small, technical wide player, and the smart coaches tend to build the defensive load around them rather than into them. He was a very good young player with clear gaps, all of them fixable with time and the right mentoring. We were sure he was moving in the right direction, and the one thing we never doubted was the quality in that right foot.
What the numbers said then
Strefezza had appeared in around 11 Serie A matches. At 22 he was developing a formidable look inside the SPAL line-up, and while he had not fully found his footing, he was already an impactful player. SPAL were not a club famous for producing talent, which made him an exception, and even as a rotation option he showed enough to suggest a higher level was coming. He had found his home on the flanks, where he gave the squad depth, and his work ethic translated cleanly onto the pitch.
The road so far
Even by 2019 he had done the hard yards, banking experience across Serie B and Serie C. Released by Corinthians at 18, he moved to SPAL a year later and was quickly loaned to Serie C side Juve Stabia. A strong season with the "giallo celesti" earned him a loan to Cremonese and another good year in Serie B, which set up this SPAL season. He came a long way for the love of the game and kept giving. He was never going to be a Danilo or a Marcelo, but we felt he would become a staple somewhere.
Transfer picture then
Strefezza had already switched clubs a lot and moved overseas to chase the dream, all while still developing his game. He caught scouting eyes early, and you can see how a young player draws that interest right through this run:
- 15/16: Released from Corinthians
- 16/17: Signing for SPAL U/19
- 16/17: Signed a first team contract with SPAL
- 17/18: Loaned out to Juve Stabia
- 18/19: Loaned out to Cremonese
All of it before he turned 23. It was a big journey already, and to us it showed hunger and passion.
Our view and what we predicted
Time to own the call. We valued him at 1.5m in December 2019, in courtesy of the transfermarkt platform, and predicted a good season that ended with Inter buying him and loaning him straight to Sassuolo, with a move to Fiorentina, or on the top end Napoli or Inter, as the upside. We even ran the maths on appearances, reckoning a very good season could push his value toward 10m. The specifics of the destinations were wrong. There was no Inter deal and no Sassuolo loan, and the club chase we sketched out never materialised. What we did get right was the direction of travel: we thought he would keep climbing on technical merit, and he did, just by a very different route than our transfer board drew up.
Where is he now
Strefezza’s breakout came not at SPAL but at Lecce, where the goals we were waiting for finally arrived, and he later carried that end product into Serie A and then abroad. The record from our data tells the story better than any forecast.
| Season | Club | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020/21 | Spal | 29 | 4 |
| 2021/22 | Lecce | 35 | 14 |
| 2022/23 | Lecce | 35 | 8 |
| 2023/24 | Lecce | 19 | 1 |
| 2023/24 | Como | 15 | 3 |
| 2024/25 | Como | 37 | 6 |
| 2025/26 | Parma | 14 | 2 |
| 2025/26 | Olympiakos Piraeus | 12 | 1 |
For his current rating, minutes and form, see his live Gabriel Strefezza scout report.
Summary
We got the destinations wrong and the player right. The technical winger we watched at SPAL turned into a genuine goal threat at Lecce, played his way through Serie A, and is still doing it abroad. Versatile, disciplined and motivated, exactly as billed, and the goal tally at Lecce made the earlier rotation years look like exactly what they were: groundwork. The name did travel, just not through the clubs we mapped it out with.