AC Milan's loanee at Lecce, Lorenzo Colombo, spoke to Tuttosport. Here are his words:
"The youth sector? It allowed me to make the climb from U17 to Primavera up to the first team. A dream for every child who grew up in that academy. It hasn't been easy, however, because in the course of my young career I had to overcome various obstacles such as a stress fracture in the fifth metatarsal of my right foot which first required surgery, then giving up on the U17 World Cup and three months of stop. That circumstance could have brought me down, but instead it helped to make me mentally stronger. I remember that after my return to the field I scored something like 7 goals in 5 games in the Primavera 2 championship, all for an overall tally in the tournament of 9 goals in 6 games."
On his first steps in the First Team, Colombo said:
"It was truly incredible. I was 18 years old and I made my debut with the Milan shirt first in the semi-final of the Italian Cup, against a very strong opponent like Cristiano Ronaldo's Juventus at the Stadium and a few weeks later also in Serie A at the San Siro against Bologna. My first appearance also came in the Europa League preliminary against Bodo-Glimt. I scored my first European goal in the Rossoneri shirt, a pity about the empty stadium, but it was a dream come true. I remember that I was deployed as a starter due to a series of circumstances: Ibrahimovic's coronavirus positivity and Rebic's disqualification."
On Zlatan Ibrahimovic:
"He is a very nice man, but at the same time he manages to keep the level of attention and quality high in the locker room. From him I learned the attention to detail: nutrition, training and mentality. Ibra made me understand that every day is important for us players, because every day is decisive for our growth on and off the pitch. I had a good relationship with him, he even gave me a nickname: he called me Hulk."
