Fikayo Tomori has credited Milan legend and current technical director Paolo Maldini with helping him improve his game after earning an England recall.
Tomori looked destined for a promising future at Chelsea, returning to the club in 2019-20 to play under Frank Lampard having also linked up with him the previous season at Derby County.
In the Championship, Tomori played 47 times as Derby got to the play-offs, and he proved an able back-up option upon his return to Stamford Bridge as he made 15 Premier League appearances – all as a starter – in 2019-20.
But things soon changed, the signing of Thiago Silva at the start of 2020-21 pushing Tomori further down the pecking order – when January came around, he had played in just one Premier League match and was seemingly heading out of the door.
Tomori joined Milan on loan and quickly established himself in the team, striking up a solid partnership with Simon Kjaer. He could not help the Rossoneri to a first Scudetto in 10 years, but they did end their seven-year Champions League hiatus and Tomori s loan was made permanent.
No team in Europe s top five leagues have kept more domestic clean sheets than Milan (eight) since the start of May, and Tomori s role landed him a recall to the England squad, with the 23-year-old lauding the influence of club great Maldini.
Speaking to reporters ahead of England s World Cup qualifier against Andorra, Tomori said: When he [Maldini] was speaking to me, I was like, Wow, it s Paolo Maldini .
There is that pressure knowing he s watching every game, he s there at the training ground every day, so as a defender I want to impress him.
When I was midway through my loan, we had a chat, I asked what he thinks about my game, what I need to improve.
He s really engaging with all the defenders, and having a legend like that around, you re going to listen. It s a nice thing to have him around, and he s been a big help.
For a while it seemed Tomori and Lampard enjoyed a similarly close bond given their time together with Derby and then the Chelsea first team.
But shortly after leaving Chelsea, Tomori said in an interview that he felt the treatment of him by Lampard – who was sacked a matter of days after the defender left – was personal .
However, Tomori says he has not spent time dwelling on such struggles.
To be fair, since I ve been at Milan I ve not really thought about it, he continued. It was difficult, when you aren t able to play, it is difficult.
Being able to overcome that, forget about that is part of the reason why now it s going so well. I didn t really dwell on it, I moved on. It s part of football.
I ve a really good support system, and now I ve overcome all that I want to keep progressing.
Every player wants to play, and when that opportunity came at such a big club like Milan, I was so happy, excited, and I m really happy it s gone so well so far.
We ve started the new season well and the club has shown a lot of faith in me. I m happy, confident and feeling really settled, and it s led me to be here [back with the England squad].
