Italy international Palestra doesn’t rule out Inter transfer: ‘We’ll see in the summer’
Italy international Marco Palestra has not ruled out a potential move to Inter during the upcoming transfer window, but insists that for now, his entire focus is on helping Cagliari achieve Serie A survival: ‘We’ll see in the summer’.
Palestra has been one of Italy’s biggest breakthrough stars of the 2025-26 season after impressing on loan with Cagliari and in his first few appearances with the Italy national team, despite the collective disappointment after the World Cup play-off disaster in Bosnia.
The 21-year-old right-back is on loan with Cagliari from Atalanta, where he has a contract that runs until the summer of 2029. Still, he has attracted plenty of interest in the second half of the 2025-26 season, especially from league leaders Inter.
Speaking at an event at Coverciano on Monday, Palestra refused to go into specific details about his future plans, but confessed that it is ‘nice’ to hear of interest from some of Europe’s biggest clubs and did not rule out a potential move away from Atalanta in the summer.
Palestra on Italy disappointment and Inter links: ‘We’ll see’
Palestra was one of several players and coaches present at the ‘Inside the Sport 2026’ event at Italy’s headquarters in Coverciano on Monday.
Speaking to reporters at the event, Palestra explained that he didn’t expect to have such an impressive season on an individual level at the beginning of the campaign: “I hadn’t thought about it, I tried to think in the short term, focussing on doing my best to improve every day without looking at goals like this.”
The exciting youngster feels that he still has plenty of potential left to fulfil: “I have a lot of margins. That’s normal when you’re 21 years old. I have to improve a little bit in everything. I’ve been in Serie A for two years and I have a lot to improve with my teammates and the coach, who always helps me.”
Palestra continues to be linked with a potential move to Inter this summer, but for now, he insists that his sole focus is on the remaining five games of the Serie A campaign with Cagliari. He did not definitively rule out a transfer away from Atalanta this summer, though.
“No, honestly I’m only thinking about Cagliari. The most important thing is to achieve safety. The rumours circulating are nice and it’s nice to be approached by big clubs, but we’ll see in the summer.”
He later repeated: “I’m 100% focussed on Cagliari, they deserve it. Then, with my agents we will make the best decision for the future, but I don’t want to think about it now.”
Palestra was also asked for his reflections after Italy’s World Cup play-off final defeat away against Bosnia and Herzegovina, which cost the Azzurri a place at the final tournament for the third time in a row.
“It was certainly a big blow for us all in Bosnia,” he said. “The following days were really difficult. However, we need to start again and be stronger than before. The group is extraordinary and we will all be able to help each other get back up, trying to improve more and more.”
And what were the days immediately afterwards like?
“They were difficult, especially the first few. I was locked in the house thinking about what had gone wrong. But then there is Cagliari. I immediately changed my mindset because I had to. Now the most important thing is to reach safety.”