In the new year, AC Milan's performance was perfect! After returning from the winter break to complete two consecutive wins, the Rossoneri sounded the horn for the league title. The team has found a winning streak rhythm again, and Ibrahimovic and Theo Fernandes certainly play a key role, but there is one person whose contribution cannot be ignored, that is, Raphael Leo, who has scored goals and assisted successively. He continued his good form of the season after recovering from injury, and this signing, which was somewhat staggering at the time, was proving Maldini's vision step by step.
Raphael Leo was born in 1999 in the western Portuguese city of Almada, where, like many Portuguese players, he has ancestral home in Africa. Leo's parents were both Angolan immigrants, which gave him an innate physical fitness. At the age of 7, Leo joined the local team in the neighboring city of Amora. Due to his obvious physical advantages, he was favored by Portuguese sports after only two years, and Leo began his football career.
In 2017, during a match against lower-division team Oleros, Leo scored on his debut in a senior tournament, after which he showed amazing efficiency and won high recognition from then-manager Fernandez. Commenting on Leo, he said: "Raphael is a No. 9 player, and I have to say that he reminds me of Ronaldo because of his speed, technique and scoring ability. Soon Leo entered sporting Portugal B and was given the opportunity to play in the Portuguese League. Leo, who has just entered the professional league, is not feeling jerky, he has scored 6 goals in 11 games, and he has also naturally entered the first team development.
February 12, 2018, was an important day in Leo's career. In a Portuguese Premier League match at home against Fira, he made his top league debut in the second half as a substitute for Ruiz. Three weeks later, in a strong dialogue with Porto, although the Portuguese sports away hate, Leo came off the bench to score his debut goal in the Portuguese Premier League. Just when the outside world thought that he would emerge in the Portuguese Premier League, a sudden accident occurred. In the summer of the same year, there was a fan attack on the players, and the mob broke into the club's training base and attacked the players who were training. This led to the termination of a large number of players with the club, including the young Leon. At this time, compatriot Luis Campos was in Lille as sporting director, and at his behest Leo chose Ligue 1.
Landing in the big five leagues is every player's dream, but Leo's start was not very smooth. Soon after coming to the team, the Portuguese boy experienced an injury and was basically in a state of recuperation for two months. It wasn't until the 11th round of Ligue 1 that Leo finally had the opportunity to prove himself. Facing the weaker Caen, Lille coach Garger made the decision to rotate, replacing veteran Remy with Leo. The former did not live up to the trust, in the game he received an assist from Nicola Pepe to score the winning goal, he not only helped the team to win 4 consecutive wins, but also won the trust of the manager. Leo played for Lille 24 times that season, delivering eight goals and three assists, which is undoubtedly a good report card for a player under 20 years old.
That year, Lille produced a number of outstanding young players, and the team's performance also improved by leaps and bounds, reaching the second place in Ligue 1 and advancing into the Champions League. Leo is one of the best of those youngsters, he often completes some passes with Pepe, showing a good frontal impact and scoring ability, so Leo is regarded as the future potential of Ligue 1. His outstanding performances have also won him the favor of the northern triwires in Serie A, and AC Milan have stood out from all kinds of competitors, spending 29.5 million euros to recruit the Portuguese.
In the 19-20 season, in the first round of Serie A, Leo made his debut at the San Siro Stadium as a substitute. He then started in the Milan derby, which shows that he has high hopes for the club. However, the head coach at that time, Giampaolo was good at using the 4-3-1-2 formation, and Leo, who was accustomed to playing single arrows in Lille, was not very accustomed to the two-striker tactic, which made him often outside the team system. Due to AC Milan's poor record, Giampaolo led the team to only 111 days before being fired. Pioli, who succeeded him, was not optimistic about the outside world, but he became the Bole of the young players in the team, and Leo became the beneficiary.
Shortly after taking office, Pioli pushed Chen to put Leo in the center position, using his ability to protect the ball and grab points to explore the key to opening the door to victory. However, due to his excessively high center of gravity and lack of balance, Milan's attack lacked smooth coordination in a narrow range, and the team's scoring ability has not improved significantly. In the case of returning Ibrahimovic, Pioli often made him a winger, but also used him as a temporary fulcrum because of tactical needs. Although the position on the pitch changes from time to time, the steady playing time allows Leo to grow. After two seasons, the 12 goals scored are basically in line with the club's expectations for him.
After crafting the team's squad structure, Leo has a strong presence in the winger position this season. He has a good ability to hold the ball, the feeling of touching the ball with one foot is quite talented, the flexibility of the body and the articulation of the movement are also quite good, and it is even better to get rid of the ball continuously after taking the ball. Leo's role is not only to score, his explosive attributes can form a local breakthrough when attacking positions, and his frontal impact is more lethal when defending counterattacks. With the increasing tacit understanding with his teammates, his ability to cooperate and transfer the ball in a small range has also improved significantly. Under Pioli's guidance, Leo gradually became the representative of the guerrilla type of striker.
Despite the great strides made, Leo is still far from the top wingers. Like many African players, he was more casual, sometimes too obsessed with individual performances, and the lack of rationality in handling the ball delayed the fighter. At the same time, due to the lack of defensive discipline, he often has the situation that he cannot attack back and forth, forcing the back players to have to make up for the position, which is easy to cause the situation of the central defender being isolated. If the efficiency and mental attributes of the ball are improved, Leo's career will be promising.
Who will be Milan's star this season? Asked about the issue, florenzi said: "If I had to determine a name by his age, his potential, his technical and physical characteristics, I would say Raphael Leo. "There is no denying that Leo is already an important member of AC Milan's squad, riding the storm of youth with the Rossoneri, defending the city of Milan with his talents.