Pierre Kalulu was confident he would get his chance to shine at Milan and is relishing the training sessions ‘playing against Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Olivier Giroud every day.’
The 21-year-old was snapped up from the Olympique Lyonnais youth team in 2020 for just over €1m and took a while to break into the first team at San Siro.
However, with Simon Kjaer and Alessio Romagnoli injured, he began to really make his mark, forming a splendid centre-back partnership with Fikayo Tomori.
“I try every day to go above and beyond expectations,” Kalulu told L’Equipe newspaper.
“Stefano Pioli pushes me to pay attention to every detail and you can see the results. In my youth, I was never the player people expected, the one people make the effort for. I was often left behind, so I knew it would take time, but I would work hard to get my chance.
“I had no fear of failure at Milan. I could’ve stayed at Lyon and been forgotten too.”
Kalulu is learning so much from the more experienced figures at San Siro and they are forcing him to raise his level too.
“Being a Milan defender means training every day against Ibrahimovic. It’s a struggle and so gratifying every time. Both Zlatan and Giroud always want to win. If you put your shoulder into the tackle, it becomes a battle.
“You must be hungry to win, always. Our training sessions are worth watching, they are duels with so much intensity.”
#Kalulu: ‘Nessuna paura di fallire al #Milan, sapevo che avrei giocato. Che scontri con Ibra e Giroud’ https://t.co/9ShOGhAMN1 pic.twitter.com/othL2W6eNF
— calciomercato.com (@cmdotcom) March 24, 2022
This kids got a good attitude, I hope he never loses it.
And I hope he goes on win stuff with Milan.
The way he runs really makes me think of Marcel Desailly, and that would be no bad thing to have another like him after all these years.