A mural featuring huge photos of AC Milan icons covers one of the inner walls at the club’s Casa Milan headquarters in the north of the city. Towering over visitors, these images include former captains Franco Baresi and Paolo Maldini, two of the finest defenders in the business from any era. The Rossoneri’s current defensive linchpin, Fikayo Tomori, has continued to make giant strides since arriving at the club in January 2021. Joining the wall of legends is probably far from his mind, considering the Englishman is only 25. But the fact that he is adored by the same fans who worshipped Baresi and Maldini is a tribute to the impact he has made.
Tomori’s second full season in red and black is approaching its climax, with the success of his debut campaign having brought new challenges. When Milan won the Serie A title in 2021/22 they became the team to beat domestically. And at the draw for the Champions League group stage last summer they were in the highly desired Pot 1, where the cream of the continent resides. The club’s return to the tournament after a seven-year absence last term was both a reconnaissance trip and an opportunity to rebuild experience in a competition they once dominated. But not this season: expectations were higher from the start, the pressure dials turned up.
Everyone connected with the Rossoneri has had to meet these new challenges. You’ve clinched your first Scudetto since 2010/11? Well done. Now, can you get even better? Claiming back-to-back titles proved unfeasible as a rampant Napoli side quickly left everyone in their wake, but Milan successfully planted their flag back on the continental map, toppling that same Napoli team to reach a first Champions League semi-final since they lifted the trophy in 2006/07. Once again, Europe has had to sit up and pay attention – not least to the quality of Tomori, who was particularly impressive in the second leg.
Tomori was also Serie A’s standout central defender last season, but he knew as well as anyone that there was room for improvement. “There’s a lot of video analysis and a lot of technical data that we look at to give ourselves the advantage,” he says. “The level was getting higher and things are getting more technical, and there are seconds and centimetres involved. I’m working on more specific stuff for my game in terms of being sharper off both sides, making sure I can push from my right foot as strong as my left. Little things that, as I’ve got older, as I’m playing more difficult games at a high level, I’m trying to work on and improve.”
That dedication to his craft has not gone unnoticed around the club. “He is an extremely serious guy, extremely calm,” said his coach, Stefano Pioli. “It’s easy with him because he is always determined, always enthusiastic, always positive, always attentive.”
True enough, Tomori is always seeking new ways to develop. “Long passing is part of my game,” he says. “Sometimes I need to play the ball long. It’s something I’m working on: technique, being comfortable doing it off both sides because sometimes I just have to do it off my left foot. I’m always looking at my high speed, how many times I’m pressing, if I’m making a recovery run or how much distance I’m covering. And the next level for me is just being that presence in both boxes, being dominant in the air, being dominant on the floor, in my duels – being strong.” Resting on his laurels? Not likely.
Injuries haven’t been kind to Milan this season, which means Tomori has played alongside several partners: Pierre Kalulu, Simon Kjær, Malick Thiaw and Matteo Gabbia. Each companion has required a tailored approach. Great Dane Kjær, for example, is the wise old head who taps into his vast experience and positional intelligence, leaving the pressing, sprinting and doubling up with the full-backs to Tomori. Thiaw is a monument to athleticism and hunger but, at only 21 years old, he takes his cues and guidance from the Englishman. This season more than any other, Tomori has been forced to adapt his style to his team-mates as much as to his opponents. In the long term, that can only serve to make him more flexible.
Celebrating with the fans in Naples (right)
Milan’s No23 initially learned a lot from John Terry, who was Chelsea’s talisman while he was rising through the Blues’ academy. Other heroes include Sergio Ramos and Virgil van Dijk. And he has enviable access to a pair of maestros at his current workplace, of course. Baresi is a club ambassador and a fan of his Canadian-born successor, praising Tomori as a “really good personality around the club” who shows “great strength to play in such a difficult role”. Then there is the director of the technical area: Maldini, a five-time Champions League winner who played in eight finals. At the mere mention of Maldini’s name, Tomori’s eyes light up.
“The first time I got a call from Maldini he said, ‘Yeah, we want you to come.’ I’d grown up with the players that had played in Milan. I’d seen them at the top and it was like, ‘Oh really? AC Milan?’ And then, once I arrived here, I remember putting on the top, the red-and-black stripes, and it was just surreal. I remember when I scored against Liverpool [in last season’s group stage] I was thinking, ‘I actually scored in the San Siro for Milan in the Champions League. This is what I used to watch people do. Now I’m doing it.’”
Not all his favourites were masters of the defensive arts, however. “Thierry Henry was my idol when I was playing for my Sunday league team. I used to always have gloves on; I used to pull my socks over my knees. If Thierry scored a goal on the Saturday and I saw the celebration, I would do the celebration. There was one time when he curled it in the corner and just kind of jogged. So I remember when I scored a goal, I did the exact same thing.”
“If you work hard at something, if you apply yourself and really want it, then what you put the work into will have its rewards”
Getting close to another supreme striker made his day – and his father’s – about 15 years ago. “I remember the first time my dad and I actually went to a Chelsea game, because we’d never seen a football game live. I can’t remember how old I was, maybe nine or ten. We saw Didier Drogba – he walked past us when he was warming up. I remember my dad and I looked at each other and we were like, ‘Whoa, that’s the Drogba we see on the flatscreen TV and now we can see him in 3D.’”
Tomori hasn’t been a stranger to hitting opposition nets himself since arriving on the peninsular. His first goal even made history, when he leapt a staggering 2.63m to power in a header away to Juventus during a commanding 3-0 victory in May 2021. That prodigious jump beat a record previously held by Cristiano Ronaldo. But preventing others from scoring is his day job – and it’s something he excels at, with Milan having kept clean sheets in their three Champions League matches at San Siro leading up to the semi-final.
The club’s fiery arena boasts a rare intensity on European nights. “It’s like a monument – it’s just there,” says Tomori. “You can see it the whole way as you’re driving past. It feels like it’s leaning towards you. On a matchday, the fans are there from two hours before the game, banging on the bus. You can see how excited and how charged they are for the game, and you just feel the energy from them. When the Champions League comes, it’s just different. The lights are a bit brighter. The fans sing along to the final part of the Champions League anthem. It gives you goosebumps; every time it happens you think, ‘This is crazy.’”
His own Champions League journey started in September 2019 with a debut at Stamford Bridge against Valencia. The Blues lost by the only goal of the game but Tomori was instantly bewitched by the competition. “In my head I was thinking, ‘Today I have to play well. Today I’m playing in the Champions League – this is what I’ve been wanting for years.’ It’s so strange: the whole day you kind of build up to it and then the game just goes so fast.”
