“With commitment and seriousness, difficulties are always overcome”, his father always said. Fikayo Tomori grew up with this phrase in his mind.
He watched Chelsea matches and started dreaming of wearing the shirt one day. But it wasn't exactly that simple: in the middle there was a journey made up of many sacrifices and support from parents. Doubts and uncertainties as a teenager, overcome with tenacity and with the right advice. The whole process in the Chelsea youth sector, up to the first team, and the English national team. Now behind Thiago Silva, Rüdiger and Kurt Zouma, Tomori has sought a new path. A street that today leads to Milan.
Fikayo Tomori is the new reinforcement for the Milan defense. Central defender, 23 years old. Attentive and concentrated in the interventions, remarkable and excellent right foot.
Strengths: decision, speed, intelligence. Tomori is only 23 years old but his story tells of a predisposition towards success: as a team and beyond.
In the 2014/15 season he won the Youth League (with Jérémie Boga ). Chelsea win against PSG in the final, and the first goal of the match was scored by Tomori, quick to take advantage of a rebound in the opponent's penalty area following a corner kick . After a week, he is decisive again: in the FA Cup U18 final against Manchester City. Another header goal that gives his team the second trophy within a week. Decisive : at the end of the year he will be elected Academy Player of the Year.
THE MATCH AGAINST LUKAKU: The following year, he won the Under 20 World Cup with the English national team. The 2018/19 season marks the first real turning point even in clubs: he is sent on loan to Derby County in the Championship, where he meets Lampard . With him, he played 44 games and was elected the club's best player that season. A first: no Derby player on loan had ever enjoyed such a prize. For Tomori it was a great season, ended only in the Championship playoff final, made special thanks to the success against Manchester United of Young and Lukaku(very well marked by the young Tomori himself) in Qarabao Cup. Today, both Young and Lukaku are in Milan, on the Nerazzurri side. They will meet again, one against the other two: perhaps already in a week in the quarter-final of the Italian Cup.
Last season, despite a good start in which he scored a spectacular goal from outside the box. He lost his starting position as 2020 was not the best year of his career. He plays little, but Lampard has never stopped believing in him. He also confirmed it a few days ago: “He has made great progress in recent seasons. We have five central defenders: it is normal that you play less and that I want to go out on loan”.
Image credit: acmilan.com
