Clinging to a narrow advantage on Saturday, Milan introduced the youngest ever Serie A debutant, and their crown jewel academy talent to the football world, 15-year old Francesco Camarda.
The learning curve, no matter how steep it may appear, seems to be challenged each and every year in football.
Younger, talented stars emerge to the forefront, pushing boundaries and punching above their weight to deliver on levels unbeknown to those in their age bracket.
Meet Francesco Camarda, the baby-faced striker setting the youth football ranks alight, and with sights set on replicating his goalscoring exploits in the top-flight.
On Saturday, Milan resumed league action as they hosted Fiorentina at a San Siro filled to the brim with 73,000 strong.
In anticipation and nervousness of a much-needed victory, supporters eagerly looked on to see if the young Camarda would receive his debut after being named to the match-day squad by Stefano Pioli earlier in the week.
With Olivier Giroud serving the first of his two matches suspension, and Noah Okafor having been added to a forever growing list of Rossoneri injuries, Luka Jovic received the starting nod against his former club.
The Serbian was presented with yet another golden opportunity to silence his many critics and deliver in ways that would instill hope of a dependable backup to the Frenchman, only to fall short yet again.
To his credit, the former Frankfurt forward played Theo Hernandez into space with a lovely through ball, eventually leading to a penalty with the left-back converted for the lone goal. However, his inability to capitalize on a sitter and put Milan ahead 2-0 left a poor taste in the mouths of supporters who yearn for answers up front.
With options scarce from the bench, and the club barely hanging onto a 1-0 lead, the time had come in the 83rd minute.
Holding back a grin amidst a roaring San Siro introduction, in stepped the kid.
At 15 years and 260 days, Camarda officially became the youngest footballer to make his Serie A debut, surpassing Wisdom Amey. Club icon Paolo Maldini was 16 years, six months and 25 days when he made his own introduction to the senior circuit for the red and black many years ago to put into context.
Touches were limited, as was overall involvement in the club seeing out the victory in rather typical chaotic fashion. However, in Camarda, there lies hope, and tempered hope at that, in a potential superstar who can emerge as not only the next star academy graduate, but also the long-term solution to an everlasting search for a goalscorer to lead the attack.
Scoring a whopping 485 goals in 89 appearances for Milan’s youth academy, Camarda’s body of work is indicative of a forward who enjoys a tremendous amount of comfort in the box and success in finding the back of the net.
At the tender age of 14, he trained with the U19s and recently became the youngest ever Italian to score in the UEFA Youth League.
With three goals against Paris Saint-Germain and Newcastle, including an acrobatic bicycle kick goal a certain Zlatan Ibrahimovic would be impressed by, Camarda is outperforming those several years older than him and making it look quite easy in the process.
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There is an undeniable buzz and excitement surrounding Camarda. In the class of 2008 bomber, fans dream of their next homegrown superstar to lead the club forward for many years to come. But to project what his future holds would be premature, and out of line at this time.
Every bright, young and aspiring footballer deserves to be supported by his or her club, and shielded from outside media who will undoubtedly place unfair expectations upon him; Camarda is no exception.
While it remains unclear about the minutes he will receive this season, there will be plenty of eyeballs watching his every match and following his journey.
