Former Italy goalkeeper Marco Amelia has tipped Gianluigi Donnarumma to become the Azzurri's future No. 1 after the 17-year-old earned his first senior international call-up this week.
AC Milan keeper Donnarumma is currently training alongside Gianluigi Buffon while on duty with Italy, and Amelia has tipped him to suceed the Juventus player when he retires, which will most likely be after the 2018 World Cup.
"First of all, he has deserved this call-up," Amelia, who played for Milan between 2010 and 2014, said. "We're all considering him now not so much an established player, but well on the way to becoming established.
"The truth is, though, he is still just 17, but he deserves everything, especially because it was not so easy a start for him, even more so after his debut season in Serie A.
"Maybe everybody was expecting him to collapse mentally, yet he is a great goalkeeper and he's on the right track to becoming Italy's best goalkeeper. That is his destiny.
"There are no other adjectives to describe this lad, not only from a technical but above all from a psychological viewpoint. To be a goalkeeper at the highest levels, then this latter aspect is fundamental."
Donnarumma debuted in Serie A for Milan at the age of 16 last October in the 2-1 win over Sassuolo. He held down his place in the Rossoneri starting XI ahead of Christian Abbiati and Diego Lopez and has played every league game since.
He has appeared three times for Italy's under-21s, but looks now to have bypassed that level by being called into the senior squad as part of new coach Giampiero Ventura's first selection.