Chapter 70 The Golden Brand of Milan's Youth Training

Despite falling behind Milan by two goals, Lazio did not back down.

Are you kidding me? Lippi's sitting in the stands! Those two Italians from Milan each scored a goal, and they showed it to Lippi on a high-profile screen. We Mauritians are Italians too, we Mauritians have to let Lippi check out our talent!

In the 42nd minute, when Gattuso crossed from the left, the ball was cleared out of bounds by his former teammate Brocchi.

Seedorf's corner kick was then won by a Lazio player in a scramble between the two teams, and Lazio immediately launched a quick counter-attack.

Taking advantage of the Milan defense's failure to track back, Pandev passed the ball directly behind the defense. Jankulovski failed to create an offside trap, and Zarate received the ball and fired it into the near corner.

Lazio pulled one back just before the end of the first half.

After the start of the second half, Milan's offensive pressure showed no signs of abating.

Fino and Kaká dribbled forward through the middle, exchanging one-two passes and tearing apart Lazio's defense. The ball obediently rolled with their passing, and Lazio's players couldn't intercept it despite several attempts. Instead, Fino and Kaká combined to get past one, two, three...

"A beautiful series of one-two passes! Kaká and Cabrini didn't use any fancy fancy moves; they simply tore apart Lazio's defense by playing one-two passes! Efficient, simple, and effective!"

Amidst the commentator's exclamations of admiration, Fino and Kaká were already close to Lazio's penalty area.

Fino passed the ball with the outside of his foot to Borriello, who had dropped back to receive it, just outside the penalty area. Borriello took a shot without stopping the ball, and it hit the right post and bounced back into the penalty area.

At this moment, Kaká and Fino had both entered the penalty area. Fino helped Kaká block Kolarov, who was rushing forward to contest the ball's landing point. Kaká won the ball and shot again. The ball grazed Carrizo's upper arm and went into the goal.

Milan extended their lead to 3-1.

Ancelotti made two substitutions directly, replacing Gattuso, who had just recovered from injury, with Flamini, and replacing Kaká, the goal scorer, with Ronaldinho.

Lazio's head coach, Delio Rossi, also used two substitutions, replacing Brocchi with De Silvestri and Mauri with Foggia.

Ancelotti's substitution strategy was clear: after taking a significant lead, he avoided overusing players who had just recovered from injury, giving other players a chance to perform.

Delio Rossi's two substitutions were somewhat inexplicable; the introduction of De Silvestri and Foggia did nothing to help Lazio's predicament.

"Lazio seems to have given up on this match in advance. The introduction of De Silvestri and Foggia will not have a positive impact on the situation on the field. Rossi probably brought on these two players just to curry favor with Lippi, after all, they are Italians and both want to be selected for the national team."

That's the only interpretation the commentator could offer.

In the 78th minute, Ambrosini intercepted De Silvestri's ball in midfield and passed it to Ronaldinho, giving Milan another excellent attacking opportunity.

Ronaldinho's dribbling breakthrough was effortless, his skillful footwork combined with masterful feints easily circumventing Lazio's numerous interceptions before passing the ball directly to Fino in the penalty area.

Fino immediately faced a double defense from Sevilla and Rozenal after receiving the ball.

Fino remained calm. He glanced to his right front, leaned slightly to the right, and raised his right foot, seemingly preparing to break past Sylvia. This caused Sylvia to move two steps to the left, attempting to block Fino's path. Rozenal then filled in Sylvia's position to prevent Fino from changing direction.

However, Fino did not break through in any direction. Instead, he used his right foot to make a backspin motion, pushing the ball from behind to Borriello on the left wing.

This was an inspiration Fino got from Ronaldinho; sometimes, a glance can also confuse an opponent, and it's more time-saving and effortless.

Borriello's chances weren't great at this point, as Lichtsteiner was defending him, but he could still take a shot and gamble on luck.

Borriello chose to pass the ball back to Fino, who had already run out of position.

Fino was somewhat surprised, but his footwork remained perfectly composed, and he unleashed a powerful shot that sent the ball into the bottom left corner of the goal.

Milan won 4-1 at home.

Fino climbed the tree on Borriello's back, and Borriello indeed held him firmly.

The doping scandal of the 2006/07 season had a significant impact on Borriello. The suspension and the overwhelming media attention extinguished much of his former competitive spirit. After transferring to Genoa, he reflected a lot and matured considerably. He stopped resorting to underhanded tactics and focused on playing solid football, which led to better performances.

After experiencing all of this, Borriello has a new understanding of his career: everything should be left to happen naturally, and nothing should be forced.

After widening the gap again, Ancelotti used his last substitution, replacing Seedorf with Emerson, and directed Milan to tighten their defense, maintaining the 4-1 score until the end.

Milan finally secured their first league victory.

Fino shone throughout the match with two goals and one assist, earning the highest score in the post-match evaluation.

Three days later, in the fourth round of the league, Milan faced Reggina away. Fino, who had started the last two games, was given a rest and did not travel with the team.

Ancelotti did not give Fino and other players who were not included in the match squad a day off; they still had to come to Milanello for training on match day.

Because the coaching staff and most of the teammates were not there, the training ground was very empty. The coach who stayed behind pulled some young players from the youth team to train together.

These young players are all born in the 1990s, the youngest being only 16 years old, but some of them are already quite well-known among local fans. In particular, Albertazzi, Verdi, Gayeta, and others are highly regarded by the youth academy for their future, and in another year or two, they can be loaned out to gain experience.

The training session that day was quite relaxed. We practiced agility, passing and receiving, shooting, and other skills. We also scrimmaged between the first-team players and the youth team players for a 45-minute scrimmage, followed by a brief debriefing, and then it was over.

While Fino was helping the staff pack up the training equipment, some clever young players came over and started packing it up themselves.

It's Verdi, a well-known attacking midfielder from AC Milan's youth academy. This summer, the 16-year-old Verdi has successfully signed a professional contract with Milan.

Fino reached out and patted his head, and then several more young players immediately appeared around him, all looking at him expectantly.

Fino twitched his lips, but still patted each of them on the shoulder, praised them a few times, and finally encouraged them, "Work hard, I'll be waiting for you in the first team."

The children's eyes lit up.

Fino is very famous in Milan's youth academy.

Milan's youth academy has been in decline for a long time. The last time a star player emerged from there to secure a place in the first team was 20 years ago. That era is too far removed from the present. With Maldini aging and Albertini retiring, it's becoming increasingly difficult for academy graduates to see any hope of making it big.

Needless to say, staying with AC Milan's first team or even finding a place in a mid-to-lower-tier Serie A team would be a pretty good outcome.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, apart from local die-hard Milan fans, fewer and fewer parents from other places have brought their children for trials. With fewer children on trial, it has become even more difficult for Milan to recruit talented kids, further weakening their youth training system and creating a vicious cycle.

It wasn't until Fino came on that Milan's youth academy began to change its predicament.

Following in the footsteps of Maldini and Albertini, AC Milan's youth academy has finally produced another shining star. Not even 20 years old, he has already secured a starting position in Milan's first team and is highly valued by the coach – this is the goal for any youth academy player!

Do you want to be the next Fino Cabrini? Keep striving, kids!

More and more children are coming for trials, and the coaches at the youth training camp finally breathed a sigh of relief.

When Fino finally emerged from the circle of young players, he saw Nesta and Pirlo standing side by side outside the training field waiting for him.

He jogged a few steps and ran to Nesta and Pirlo's side.

"How were the test results?"

Nesta's back injury flared up during the summer break, and he has been missing training and matches ever since. Pirlo, on the other hand, suffered a thigh muscle strain during training before the third round of the league.

Today is the day they come to Nello for a follow-up inspection.

Pirlo tidied Fino's slightly messy hair after exercise and said with a smile, "Not bad, you should be able to resume training soon."

"Go take a shower and change, we'll watch the game together tonight," Nesta said as he pushed Fino toward the locker room.

“Watching the game together is fine, but I don’t want to cook.” Fino felt Nesta wanted him to be the cook, so he immediately refused. “Training is too tiring, I don’t want to move.”

Nesta put his arm around his shoulder and chuckled softly, "Liar, Andrea and I have been watching for a while now. Today's training intensity is practically child's play."

"Anyway, I'm just going to eat tonight, not cook."

"Stop nagging! I'll bake you a pizza." Nesta used the hand that was on Fino's shoulder to stroke Fino's hair.

"I also want to eat Italian food made by Andrea." Fino turned to look at Pirlo beside him, his tone somewhat arrogant.

Pirlo smiled and nodded.

Fino quickly took a shower, dried his hair, and walked out of the shower room. Nesta and Pirlo were waiting for him in the locker room.

Pirlo had already packed his backpack for him.

"Thank you, Andrea." Fino casually ran her fingers through her hair. "Shall we go?"

Nesta frowned: "Dry your hair first, be careful not to catch a cold, it's almost October."

"The temperature is fine now, it's not dripping anymore, it will dry naturally in a while."

Before Nesta could open his mouth again, Pirlo had already come over with a hairdryer and started drying his hair.

Fino felt a little uncomfortable. He reached out to take the hairdryer and dry himself, but Pirlo slapped his hand away and pressed him back into his seat.

So he could only sit obediently and let Pirlo blow-dry his hair.

Pirlo held a hairdryer in one hand and gently ran his fingers through his hair with the other. He felt the warmth of the air and the pressure of Pirlo's fingers on the top of his head, and a warm feeling of being cherished rose in his heart.

Pirlo is so gentle.

They can be incredibly wicked when they're being wicked, and incredibly gentle when they're being gentle.

After Pirlo finished his mission, he hugged Pirlo's waist, rested his head on Pirlo's abs, and said in a muffled voice, "Thank you, Andrea."

Pirlo touched Fino's hair, which he had just styled.

The evening's activities took place at Nesta's house, where the three of them chatted and laughed while cooking together in the kitchen.

Although she said she would only eat and not cook, Fino still helped out the two chefs.

By the time they finished preparing dinner, it was almost 8:30 p.m., and AC Milan's away game against Reggina was about to start, so they could eat dinner while watching the game.

Because the next match is the Milan derby, Ancelotti benched Maldini, Ambrosini, Ronaldinho, and others for this game, with Inzaghi and Pato partnering up front.

Reggina's strength is not on the same level as Milan's, and Milan undoubtedly won.

Inzaghi and Pato each scored a goal, helping the team to 3 points, while Shevchenko and Borriello also got some playing time as substitutes.

After suffering two consecutive defeats at the start of the league season, Milan won the next two league matches, bringing their winning streak to three games including the Champions League.

Milan is moving in the right direction, and Fino believes they will be able to lift the league title again before Maldini retires.