AC Milan's centre-back, Fikayo Tomori, spoke to ITV Sport in an interview about his life in Milan and experience in Serie A among other topics.
Here are his words:
"Joining Milan? When I first found out about it, I was kind of shocked really. The thing that kind of made me realise: 'Oh, it's Milan'; I spoke to Maldini. Then, I spoke to my dad, and my dad grew up watching Milan so he was like: 'Oh, George Weah, Maldini... He was talking about all of these people. When I made the move here, then I went to the museum and that's when I realised how big the club actually is."
On the phone call with Paolo Maldini, did you get like pre-warning? Tomori said:
"I got a pre-warning. It was actually a Zoom call, because it was during Covid. I was just kind of looking at him (laughs). I was surprised that he spoke English. I thought: 'Wow, he speaks English pretty well'. It was probably the best decision I made, not only in football, but also in life as it opened up my view on football and life."
On his debut for AC Milan in the derby against Inter, he commented:
"I was really nervous, just being on the bench. I think it was Simon Kjaer who was injured, after like, 20 minutes. At that point, I still didn't speak Italian, I was still getting used to the team and the manager (Pioli) calls me: 'Fik!', and I wasn't even warming up, I was sitting down, and he says 'Fik, let's go'. Then I take off my jacket, and I thought I just got to keep it simple. The game just went so fast," said Tomori, "It just went so quickly."
On Zlatan Ibrahimovic, he said:
"What I can tell you about Zlatan is, what you see in the media, he might not show it everyday in training, but it is him. It is not an act. What I realised is that I know why he is like that and why he played for clubs that he played for and why he is the player that he was, because he is the most demanding person I've ever came across in life."
Tomori added:
"Everything had to be perfect. He's like, if you want me to shoot, pass it to my feet, or cross it to my head. He was that demanding. Even in training, you always hear him... When I first came to Milan, it was Covid, so no one was in the stadium and so you can hear him all the time and he was always, always, always speaking. But, (he was) a top professional, a top player. I've never heard someone strike a ball like he does."
On winning the Scudetto with AC Milan, Tomori said:
"The last home game of the season was against Atalanta and we won 2-0 and my friends came from London because we could have won the league that day. But, Inter won later that night. And people said 'one more game'... Then, I went to Sassuolo, and I remember the Milan fans have crashed the Sassuolo website trying to get tickets. We got to the stadium and it was four stands, one for Sassuolo fans and the rest were for Milan. It was crazy. My friends flew back to London and flew back again, they said, 'We're not missing it.'. If I managed to get them into the stadium? Yes. I got them in, and my parents didn't want to come because they were too scared to watch. They didn't even watch the game, they were at home in my house. They just waited until after. After the game, all the fans ran on the pitch and I remember this one fan who just grabbed me and he was like: 'Thank you so much'. You could just see how much it meant to the fans. People were crying. It was mad, and after that we had the parade. Then in the next day, in the Duomo, normally where there are tourists, it was just filled with Milan fans. It was for sure the best two days I had."
Tomori, what would you say to the younger version of yourself, 18 or 19 years old?
"'Don't worry, it's going to be alright.' Because, you know, Some people at that age are playing in the Premier League, and you are thinking 'what is happening to me?', so: 'Don't panic, don't worry, you're going to do alright'."
