Moise Kean is the first Millennial in Italian football. The player, in fact, was born 28th February, 2000 and was the first to make his debut in Serie A last week.
But this is not enough. What is really intriguing is the nice football story that sees Kean a Juventus player. The best team in Italy, one of the top teams in Europe, had the audacity and the foresight to select a 16 year-old kid to play a Serie A match, without any fear of making a bad impression or affecting the talent.
Usually in Italy it's more common low level teams take the gamble of playing such young lads: the attitude of Juventus, from this point of view, is admirable and, in my opinion, should be imitated by all clubs in Italy.
This can be one of the factors to help Italian football emerge from a period of crisis: betting on young players, on young talents, putting them on the pitch without too much mental pressure. In leagues like the Premier League or La Liga a player of 23 years is already an experienced one; in Italy we consider him still a young talent.
After my recommendations for the solutions to the Italian football movement, let's go back to Moise Kean, to tell you something more about him.
As you can easily see, Kean is not the typical Italian surname: Moise Bioty Kean (this is his full name) was born in Vercelli, Piemonte region and his parents are from Ivory Coast. He started his career at a very young age in 2007 with the Asti team (after the first kicks in an oratory team) but his talent was immediately noticed. A scout suggested his name to Torino and after six months he has been called for a trial.
Silvano Benedetti took him for Torino's youth team; but at the age of 11 he passed to the other side of Turin, to Juventus. With the Bianconeri, the baby striker has made the climb through the youth system and reached the first team squad. In four days his career really has reached a turning point: on the 19th November he was substituted for Mario Mandzukic in the 84th minute against Pescara, making his debut in Serie A. Three days later, he has even made his first appearance in the Champions League, replacing Miralem Pjanic against Sevilla.
With that match, he also became the first Millennial of the Champions League.
Write down his name: you will soon hear and read many things about him. To understand more about him and his potential it's enough for me to tell you that he's already under the protective wing of Mino Raiola.
VENTURA'S WORD FOR VERRATTI
During an interview with Sky Sport, Giampiero Ventura reflected on his first period as head coach of the Italian national team. Some of his statements have provoked much discussion. In particular, he has said: "I've said it before and I'll say it again; (Marco) Verratti is absolutely a good thing for Italy. The problem is that he doesn't play in Italy, but in France. The rhythms are different; the strength of his team is so high that he never gets put in difficulty". And then he has added: "He must get used to putting 100 percent into matches."
Ventura has made similar statements in the past talking about (Sebastian) Giovinco and the level of MLS. Nothing new. He thinks that for a player there are leagues more testing than others and he thinks that playing in France and, in particular, in a team so much stronger than the others like PSG, he is not used to fighting for things.
TOTTI CAN PLAY ON
What if Francesco Totti does not stop playing after this season? I wouldn't be surprised by this: he's a man who loves playing football more than anything else in the world (apart from his wife and children, of course!) and if he feels able to do so and can enjoy doing it, I'm sure he will keep on playing. Immortal.
CHELSEA RETURN GOOD FOR ZOLA
I'm really curious about the possibility that Gianfranco Zola will become Antonio Conte's assistant at Chelsea.
He has declared to the press: “I am saying something obvious if I say one day I want to be Chelsea manager. But I've always said I would like to be a Chelsea coach. But I haven't spoken to Antonio about that. I like to see my old club in good hands. I'm really happy for Antonio and I hope he's successful."
Maybe it could seem a step backward for his career, but I think it could be a good chance for him to come back after some disappointing seasons and after too many false promises by clubs interested in him but not taking him in the end.
It could be a nice chance for him to restart his career with a club in which he is considered a legend. Even if coming in from the back door.
