Ruben Amorim had waited a lifetime for his first Milan derby. As a kid growing up in Lisbon, he supported two football teams. There was the local one, Benfica, whose games he attended so early in life that his father has recalled changing nappies in the stands of the old Estádio da Luz.
And the other one that captivated him from overseas. Now I suppose I’ll have to become a coach for the other!” It took him another nine years to achieve that ambition. The Milan side he inherited this June did not look like the continental conquerors he used to admire on VHS.
This version had just missed out on the Champions League for a second season running. Its hoped-for star of this decade, Rafael Leão, was ready to move on amid laments of unfulfilled potential. Still, from day one, Amorim has given off the air of a cat who got the cream.
It was tempting to infer some relief at moving on from an unhappy chapter at Manchester United. Certainly it can’t have hurt that Milan’s owners backed their new manager to a tune of more than €160m on transfer fees in the summer window. But there was something in there too, of a person fulfilling a promise they made to their younger self.
And calcio was the best league in the world.” Serie A lost that title some time ago. No Italian team has won the Champions League since 2010, and no player representing one has been awarded the Ballon d’Or since 2007. The Premier League long ago surpassed all rival competitions for TV revenues and spending power.
Only a handful of super clubs elsewhere have kept up. And yet, Serie A is having some kind of moment. Its reputation as the home of dour catenaccio is as outdated as Amorim’s old VCR, but things have spun especially far in the opposite direction this season, with an average of 3.18 goals per game.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
