AC Milan's central defender, Fikayo Tomori, spoke to those at The Athletic in an exclusive interview ahead of Sunday's big derby against Inter.
On life in Italy and Milano:
"I’ve got a sweet tooth. I can’t lie. There’s actually a Neapolitan pastry, a sfogliatella, so I like that every now and then. The weather? We’re in February and you can sit outside. You can’t do that in London. In this part, there’s a lot of finance people, foreigners and people from outside of Italy. Having that multi-cultural side of Milan accompanying proper Italian culture, it’s a nice mix. I’ve immersed myself here so I know what’s going on."
On the Zoom call with Paolo Maldini, Tomori said:
"I didn’t really process it. It was a surreal moment. I used to watch him on TV, (I’d) heard so many stories. Milan legend! And he’s like: ‘Yeah, we want to sign you for Milan'."
On Paolo Maldini giving him advice:
"’In this situation, what were you thinking?’,” Tomori recalls being asked. “‘This is what I would have done. I see what you tried to do. This is what you could do better, etc’. Even having those little snippets from him were things I’ve held with me forever because it’s Paolo Maldini saying it to me. My arrival? When I first came, I signed on loan (and) with a loan, you never really know what’s going to happen."
On the photographs of historic moments of AC Milan hanging on the walls at Milanello:
"That’s the first thing you’re hit with. Pictures of all the Champions League nights. You see Maldini, Franco Baresi, Andriy Shevchenko, Kaka. All these legends. All these trophies. All these memories. This place is history and legacy. It’s part of the culture. (It’s) a nice feeling purely because all these great players were here, walked these same steps, same hallways, saw the same things and played on the same pitches."
Ate the same pasta?
"The chef Michele’s been here for a while. He’s got loads of stories. At every away game, he’s got this big pot of pasta and he’s swirling it around, dishing it up for everyone. He’s part of the furniture."
On the bus parade when Milan won the league four years ago was something else, Tomori commented:
"It was supposed to be two hours. We ended up staying on for five because there were so many people on the streets. We got to the Duomo and the only time I’d seen it before was with tourists taking pictures. We got there and it was full. You couldn’t see the floor. It was just people, fireworks and noise. I was like, ‘This is a real institution of football. This is real passion and love'."
On meeting Milan fans:
"I went to the centre (of Milan) one time with my friends and it was, ‘PICTURE! PICTURE! PICTURE!’. I was like: ‘What’s going on here?'. I’d never experienced that before."
On the derby and remembering his exhausted ticket allocation for the last derby in November, a 1-0 win for Milan, Tomori says:
"I used 15 or 20. There’s a lot of demand. People say, ‘I’ve heard of the Milan derby. I’ve seen it on TV’. But being in the stadium is a totally different experience. It was Covid but the fans came to the training ground. That doesn’t happen in England. They’re waving flags. They’ve got banners and everything. Immediately, that happens and you think: ‘This is a different game. This is a different derby'. Then you come to the stadium. You’re on the bus and you hear the fans banging on it. At first I was like: ‘Hold on, what’s going on here'."
On the San Siro stadium:
“I remember the first game we played here,” Tomori says, recalling the return of supporters to the stands following the pandemic. “I think it was Cagliari. The stadium was full and I just thought: ‘Phwoar’. I used to play FIFA when I was younger. You could choose the stadium you played in and — I don’t know — it’d be Manchester United vs Chelsea but you could choose to play at San Siro. I used to do that a lot with my cousins and I was thinking: ‘Wow! This is it. This is the San Siro!'."
On the Milan supporters atmosphere in the derby at San Siro after scoring a goal:
"The Curva Sud! It’s not a thing in England,” Tomori says. “Having these ultra passionate fans who just sing for 90 minutes. Not even 90 minutes. They’re there before we’re out warming up. They’re there after the game. Even that in itself is another nuanced thing that makes it so special. I feel like, even my friends, I used to tell them about it but they never really understood what I was saying until they actually came to the stadium.”
Tomori remembers one of the Mister's first meetings after taking charge...
"He said: ‘Last season, we scored, I don’t know, 80-something goals. That’s Champions League statistics. However, we conceded 40-something. That’s sixth place or maybe in a good year fourth’. He said: ‘That’s not to say the defenders are bad and the defenders aren’t doing their job, the goalkeeper’s not doing his job. It’s to say the whole team needs to have the mentality that we cannot concede this many goals because if we don’t concede that many, we’ll be top of the table, especially with the players we have up front."
On Rafael Leao:
"It was almost like he didn’t know how good he was. because everything came so naturally to him. He came out of the womb and this is just how he knew to play football. He just didn’t know how to use what he had. Everyone saw it the year we won the Scudetto, almost like he realised: ‘Wow. I can do this! I can do this!'."
On Christian Pulisic:
"People underestimate him. People don’t realise how fast he is. They don’t realise how sharp he is with the ball, how good he is with the ball, how intelligent he is. You only realise it when he’s scored a goal against you. I knew him from Chelsea.Puli’s a top, top professional. A really top guy. He always wants to improve. If he misses a shot in training, he’s like: ‘Why did I do that?’. But he’s really calm and nice to be around, very level-headed even, you know, (as) the best player America’s had in god knows how long. But he’s very calm, level-headed, very simple, I’d say."
Inter’s Federico Dimarco has overtaken Pulisic in the MVP stakes... Can Pulisic challenge him for this award?
"I hope so. His goal-per-minute ratio is unbelievable and even though he’s been carrying injuries this season every time he’s been called upon, he’s done the business.I know for him it’s been frustrating to be injured and even for us, it’s been frustrating because he’s been unbelievable."
On the hope being called-up to the FIFA World Cup, Tomori said:
" I haven’t done it yet. I’ve had the feeling I’ve been close. England coach Tuchel? We spoke a few months ago and he kind of said what I said. That I’m close and there’s not a lot in it, just to keep going. In football (and) in life anything can happen. I’m focused on myself, doing the best I can to help myself, to help Milan. And then, like I said, hopefully I’m on the plane in June."
The notion Italian football is slower than the English game is, in his opinion, "a myth" says Tomori:
"I'm not sure the stats are available but if you see the stats of the running we do it is very, very high. We've played against Premier League teams in the Champions League. Obviously the Premier League is a high, high level. But we've beaten Premier League teams. We've lost to Premier League teams and it's not like we lost to them because we've been over-run or lacking in intensity. Maybe the other team was better than us. Sometimes that happens in football but to say that Italian football and Serie A is lacking in intensity, I don't agree. Coming here I was thinking maybe it will be a little slower. Naaaah! It's a different type of running. In the Premier League I'd say there's more space. If the ball goes between the lines (in England), it doesn't matter because then we'll just run and get it. But in Italy it's like 'No. Why do we have to run after it when we can prevent it from happening before'. It may seem slow because of the detail and the structuring of the team so we don't have to run too much. In England intensity is we've got to be at them. Run harder than them. Everything like that. Here it's mental not only in the preparation for the game and dealing with outside pressures and fan expectation. What they value so much here is being concentrated and locked into the game for 90 minutes. It seems easier than you think. But it's a lot harder to be in the game for 90 minutes because here there are a lot of things where teams are waiting for that one moment when one player out of 11 makes a mistake and then they strike. Having that intensity, in terms of concentration, in terms of we can't make a mistake, or we have to make as few mistakes as possible. Obviously it's impossible to not make a mistake, but to make the least mistakes possible to win this game. That is an intensity in itself and something I had to get used to when I first got here because there is so much information."
On the feeling of winning a derby:
"I don’t know how many derbies I’ve played in now but every single one has that feeling. When you win it afterwards, I wouldn’t say it’s a relief, it’s just pfffff. We did it. Obviously for us we’re happy. But knowing the fans are happy and the whole of AC Milan is happy, it’s a great feeling."
