Chapter 1, Section 1: Fino Cabrini
AC Milan's head coach Carlo Ancelotti was somewhat frustrated.
In his quest to find a forward to fill the void left by the first team, he has spent two days observing the youth teams, from the U19 level down to the U16 level, but to no avail.
There are too many mediocre people; only Fino Cabrini, who has just turned 18, has a bit of talent.
He was an exceptionally handsome child. Beneath thick eyebrows, his black eyes were hidden in long, raven-feather-like eyelashes, gleaming with an obsidian-like metallic sheen. He had a high, straight nose with a delicate tip, and thin lips with a sickly pallor.
Like a masterpiece meticulously crafted by God, it is exquisite and beautiful in every aspect.
Such exquisite features often have an artificial, almost artistic quality, but because he is still young, his soft facial contours soften the aggressiveness of his features. Although his overall temperament is somewhat aloof and cold, he does not exude an arrogant air that makes people hesitant to approach him.
His slightly long hair was fluffy, thick, and glossy black. To prevent it from obstructing his vision, the hair on his forehead was tied back with a thin black hairband, but more strands escaped from the hairband and danced and fluttered as he ran.
Ancelotti especially wanted to complain: when will this long hair trend in Serie A finally end? Even the youth teams are being affected; out of ten youth players, eight have long hair, regardless of whether it suits them or not.
Those who are pleasing to the eye are fine, but some players with long hair really look like bandits!
Compared to his appearance, Cabrini's performance was less impressive.
His sense of smell and awareness are decent, and he has some technique, but his running and receiving are somewhat aimless, and he clearly lacks chemistry with his teammates, acting like an outsider.
A lone wolf.
Ancelotti made up his mind.
Lacking chemistry with teammates they've trained with for years, their personality is likely unlikable. They might even be disrespectful to their teammates because of their relatively superior individual abilities, unwilling to cooperate, and have a tendency to become a ball hog and a cancer.
Moreover, his individual ability is not outstanding enough to dominate the game. He may be more eye-catching in the youth team, but he would be insignificant in the first team.
An unlikable personality, coupled with a face that's bound to cause trouble sooner or later...
Forget it, Milan has already contributed enough to the tabloids' sales; there's no need to cultivate another "controversial prince."
When things are going well, all the gossip is just harmless embellishment, but Milan is currently in turmoil.
AC Milan's predicament can be traced back to the summer of 2006.
For Italian football fans, the summer of 2006 was a summer of both joy and pain.
On the one hand, in the recently concluded World Cup in Germany, Italy won its fourth World Cup title, which is also Italy's first major tournament title this century.
On the other hand, the "Calciopoli" scandal continued to escalate, causing Serie A's reputation to plummet and making the decline of the once top league inevitable.
Among the teams involved in the "Calciopoli" scandal, Juventus was relegated and could only play in Serie B in the 2006/07 season. AC Milan, Lazio, and Fiorentina retained their Serie A qualification for the new season, but would have different amounts of league points deducted as punishment.
For AC Milan fans, starting the new season with a deficit of 8 points is certainly frustrating, but what is even more painful is that Milan lost their star player Andriy Shevchenko this summer.
Chelsea's wealthy owner, Roman Abramovich, was extremely infatuated with this blond Eastern European, relentlessly pursuing him in every transfer window until he finally succeeded during the Serie A turmoil.
The Ballon d'Or winner transferred to Chelsea for €43.88 million.
Under the shadow of the "Calciopoli" scandal, the appeal of Serie A to top stars has significantly decreased.
After much deliberation, Milan finally brought in Brazilian star Ricardo Oliveira to fill the void left by Shevchenko's departure. However, the prodigy who had been dominating La Liga did not perform well, leaving fans feeling cheated.
Oliveira's Milan career actually had a very good start.
He scored a goal on his first appearance for Milan, raising the expectations of the fans.
Some imaginative fans have even started sketching out their wonderful future plans: joining AC Milan, becoming a dominant center forward, winning the Champions League trophy, winning the Ballon d'Or, reaching the pinnacle of his career, and becoming a new Shevchenko. Just thinking about it is quite exciting!
But Oliveira was inherently rebellious and refused to follow the script. After his successful debut, he immediately got lost in the rotten vegetable garden of San Siro, failing to score repeatedly. The taste test and the formal product were worlds apart.
How infuriating! What kind of devil is this? Why are they toying with the feelings of us innocent fans?!
It's a scam! Absolutely a scam!
The new signings are unreliable. Alberto Gilardino, the rising star brought in from Parma for 25 million euros last season, has also struggled to adapt and has not delivered the impressive performances he had at Parma, only managing to fall short of expectations.
33-year-old veteran Filippo Inzaghi has had a mediocre performance in the league, and Ancelotti relies on him more in the Champions League.
Milan's attacking options were severely limited, making winter transfer window signings an urgent priority.
From the 4th to the 12th round of the league, a total of 9 matches, Milan had 4 draws and 4 losses, winning only one game, indicating a serious lack of firepower.
However, there is still nearly a month and a half before the winter transfer window, and the solution is far from sufficient to address the immediate needs.
So head coach Ancelotti tried to bring in players from the youth teams to supplement the attack. Whether it would work or not is another matter, but the main point is to have someone on the field so that there's no panic, and to reassure himself.
Frankly, Ancelotti knew his chances of getting the youth team into action were slim.
Since Paolo Maldini and Demetrio Albertini, AC Milan's youth academy has never produced any fruitful results.
Even though he was mentally prepared, Ancelotti was still somewhat frustrated. Like a lottery player who knows the odds of winning are slim, he was still inevitably disappointed after losing his money.
Just as Ancelotti was about to leave, several youth team coaches approached him.
"Hey Carlo, have you found any promising talents that you like?"
Ancelotti spread his hands and shrugged.
The youth team coaches exchanged glances, and one of them recommended Fino Cabrini to him, and only Fino Cabrini.
“Carlo, among the eligible attacking players, only Fino has the potential to establish himself in the first team. If he can't satisfy you, then you'll have to wait for the winter transfer window.”
Ancelotti shook his head and said, "His talent is indeed quite good, but he plays too selfishly. You know, the current league results are not optimistic, it's not the right time to discipline a problem child."
"Problem child? No, no, Fino is definitely not a problem child." Another youth team coach waved his hand in rebuttal. "He joined us when he was 10 years old and grew up right under our noses. Don't worry, Carlo, Fino is a very hardworking kid, with a good attitude towards training, he is serious enough about football, and he never causes trouble."
Ancelotti raised an eyebrow, finding it somewhat absurd.
Unlike the frequent transfers in the first team, most of the youth team players have known each other since childhood and have played together step by step. If they have played with their teammates for seven or eight years and still don't have good teamwork, can they be considered to have a serious, hardworking attitude?
As if sensing Ancelotti's question, the youth team coach explained, "He only recently changed positions. He used to play as a goalkeeper. You should have heard about the news a few years ago about Milan's talented goalkeeper, Fino."
Fino was born in Milan to both Milanese parents, and her mother is half Chinese.
In the spring of 1998, Fino and her parents were in a car accident. Her parents died on the spot, but Fino survived and lost her guardian, so she was sent to a children's welfare home.
Six months later, Fino, who had just turned 10, came to Milanello for a trial accompanied by staff from the children's welfare home and successfully joined the Milan youth team, moving into Milanello.
After the car accident, Fino lost all his memories, including his language, and had to start learning Italian from scratch.
When Fino first joined Milan's youth academy, he had difficulty communicating with the other children due to language barriers.
Children are very sensitive to individual differences and often band together to exclude children who are different from the group.
If Fino wants to play football with other kids, he has to stand in front of the goal more often. After all, most kids dream of being a striker, and it's not easy to have a teammate who is willing to be the goalkeeper.
He was taller and more focused than his peers from a young age. While other children were running around the field, Fino was already fixed in the goalkeeper position and began to focus on learning and mastering the basic skills of goalkeeper under the guidance of the coach.
His sense of position, anticipation, and agility far surpass those of other young goalkeepers of his generation. Compared to the youth of top goalkeepers like Buffon, Fino is in no way inferior.
If they're lucky, Milanello might produce a goalkeeper legend!
This is undoubtedly exciting news for AC Milan's youth academy, which has not produced a top star for more than a decade.
However, on Fino's 16th birthday, just as he was about to sign an apprenticeship contract with Milan, all his bright hopes for the future came to an abrupt end.
Fino's bone age assessment report showed that his epiphyseal plates were almost completely closed, leaving little room for further growth.
This was a devastating blow to both Fino and the youth coaches.
Fino was taller than his peers from a young age, so the coaches were optimistic that he could grow another ten centimeters before he stopped growing and could be on par with Buffon (191cm) in height, or even close to Dida (195cm), the first team's main goalkeeper.
In reality, Fino simply developed early, and his height is estimated to be only about 180cm, which is even shorter than Casillas after dehydration (officially 185cm, actually about 182cm).
This caught the coaches off guard, leaving them unsure how to plan for Fino's future.
He has a high floor as a goalkeeper, with solid basic skills, stability, and few mistakes. However, due to limitations in height and wingspan, his coverage area will be inherently lower than that of taller goalkeepers, limiting his potential for future development.
If Fino were just an ordinary youth player with average talent and an average future career path, the coaches wouldn't be bothered. The youth training center would produce a few such players every year, and if they couldn't play in the top league, they would be sold to lower leagues.
But Fino is different. He grew up under the expectations of the entire Milanello team, and emotionally, it was hard for the coaches to accept that the promising star they had been watching for so many years had faded into obscurity.
Height and wingspan are innate physical attributes that cannot be compensated for through hard work. The youth training director hopes that Fino will switch to another position. Although Fino lacks familiarity with other positions because he fixed his position too early, 16 years old is not too late. Fino is hardworking and smart, and he may be able to find another path.
Goalkeeper coaches strongly objected, hoping that Fino could maintain his current jumping ability and agility after he stopped growing and not be affected by muscle gain and weight gain, and that he could make up for his height disadvantage with super reaction speed and explosive power, just like Casillas.
Because they could not reach a consensus, the coaches ultimately decided not to change Fino's position on the field for the time being, and let him continue to play as a goalkeeper.
However, we need to incorporate more training in other positions into his daily training, while closely monitoring his various physical data to prepare for any possible position changes in the future.
Perhaps it was a stroke of luck, but the coaches were pleasantly surprised to find that Fino had a great nose for goal and excellent positioning, as well as good speed. In addition, he has always had a high football IQ, and his tactical understanding and ability to read the game are outstanding. Perhaps he can also make a great contribution in the midfield and forward positions.
In the days that followed, Fino spent almost all his time outside of his studies on football.
In addition to training hard according to the coach's arrangements, Fino also spent a lot of time watching game videos, analyzing the tactical systems of different teams, continuously improving his tactical literacy, and learning from excellent midfielders and forwards. Once bitten, twice shy, what if the coach thinks he is not suitable to be a striker and wants to switch him to midfield? Midfielders need to use their brains.
Keep learning, there's no end to learning.
Training grounds, gyms, video rooms... Fino's positive and hardworking figure can be seen in every space of the youth training center.
His face was so deceptive; he looked like a quiet, fragile young master, but deep down he had a madness that would never give up until he achieved his goal.
No coach would dislike a player like this: he doesn't frequent nightclubs, doesn't complain, and once he sets a goal, he perseveres relentlessly towards it without wavering or getting lost, but steadily and firmly moving forward.
As it turned out, Casillas was one in a million, and by the time Fino turned 18, the coaches had to admit that Fino could not replicate Casillas' success.
As he gets older, his opponents become more and more technically skilled and their shots become more and more difficult to execute. Fino's reaction speed and explosiveness become increasingly difficult to compensate for his disadvantages in height and wingspan.
They can barely hold on in youth team matches, but they struggle to cope with those annoying forwards in top leagues who like to exploit the goalkeeper's weaknesses.
Changing positions on the field is imperative.
Stars do not fail those who persevere. After more than two years of training, Fino's skills as a striker are already quite outstanding. Even if he is not yet at the level of a first-team starter, he can become a new force on the bench.
The youth coaches planned to recommend Fino to the first team after he had adapted to the striker position for a while, but they did not expect Ancelotti to come to the youth team to select players during the season.
“Carlo, eight years ago, we were blinded by Fino’s exceptional talent as a goalkeeper. We were too eager to achieve quick results and prematurely tied him up in front of the goal, almost ruining a genius. It was a painful lesson. Fortunately, it’s not too late. In the past two years, both Fino and I have been working hard to catch up. You’ve seen his performance these past few days. He just lacks experience as a striker, not a lack of ability. Even if he were to train with the first team, he would surprise you.”
The youth coaches remain steadfast in recommending Fino to Ancelotti.
“To be honest, Kaka has been too tired this season, and Inzaghi’s stamina is not very reliable either. Letting Fino come on as a substitute in some less important games is a good option.” The youth coach hesitated for a moment, “At least, at least he won’t be worse than Oliveira.”
Oh, damn it! Ancelotti covered his eyes, cursed under his breath, and his mood quickly soured.
He hesitated for a moment, but ultimately decided to bring Fino back to the first team.
Just like that youth coach said, he won't be any worse than Oliveira!
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