AC Milan spent nearly €35 million to sign Rafael Leao from Lille making him one of the most expensive transfers in club history.
MILAN NEWS – Everyone is going crazy about new AC Milan striker Rafael Leao. The 20-year-old Portuguese needed just a few minutes against Feronikeli and some well-executed passes and dribbling to convince the Rossoneri fans and football experts on his potential. AC Milan have signed a prodigy, one of the brightest talents in European football. Skillful, quick and with a killer instinct, Leao is the complete package.
Tiago Fernandes, his former coach and mentor at Sporting Lisbon, is confident that Rafael Leao will have a glorious career ahead of him. In a recent interview with the Italian media, Fernandes spared no praise in describing the talent of Leao: “Rafael is a special player for me, he always will be. I met him when he was just 12-13 years old and I’ve trained him in almost all the youth teams of Sporting Lisbon until his debut in the first team. Only Cristiano Ronaldo at Sporting had his talent at that age, I guarantee you“.
The debut of Portuguese with the Red and Black jersey impressed everyone for the obvious qualities that Fernandes judges them to be unique: “At Sporting I had the pleasure of working with many promising youngsters, but Rafael Leao is undoubtedly the best footballer I have ever had. We are talking about a great striker, who can still grow a lot thanks to his innate humility and constant desire to improve“.
Now the young striker is at AC Milan, a very important destination for such a young player: “This repays the many hours of work spent together on the pitch in these years. We have been very important for each other and today I am really happy that he has landed in a great club like the Rossoneri. Milan is the perfect club to show all his qualities, I am convinced that in Serie A he will score a lot and will be happy”.
The former coach then gave an opinion on the ideal role of Rafael Leao, who in Kosovo played as a second striker alongside Krzysztof Piatek: “He is a number 9, he has always played there. He reminds me of Ronaldo, the ‘Phenomenon’, for his speed, technique and quality in the decisive part of the action. Rafael still has to improve in the air but I want to say to the Rossoneri fans that Leao is a champion who can solve the match on his own. You’ll see…“.
Fernandes does not exclud that in the future the former Lille could also make a further leap forward in his career: “Rafael has the talent to play for Real Madrid and Barcelona, for all the best European clubs. He’s worthy of any team in the world and has a guaranteed glorious career ahead of him”.
