Fikayo Tomori has an appetite for self-improvement.
During lockdown, a period many remember as a blur of procrastination, he put down the TV remote and polished off the final assignments of an Open University degree in business management.
“I saw it as a chance to focus and get it all done. I like to engage my brain and keep it ticking,” he said.
Tomori’s education was just getting started. After his academic studies, a move to AC Milan in January 2021 gave the centre-back the opportunity to learn at the Oxbridge of defending: San Siro.
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The ex-Chelsea man joined a club famed for building the most formidable backlines, with an all-time great defender, Paolo Maldini, as technical director.
Milan will win their first Serie A title in 11 years by avoiding defeat away to Sassuolo on Sunday. And the 24-year-old Tomori has formed a formidable partnership with Pierre Kalulu, while another French prospect, goalkeeper Mike Maignan, has excelled behind them – forming a defensive unit described in the Italian media as a “bunker” or a “wall”.
Milan have conceded two goals in their last 10 league games with five clean sheets in a row at home – and 17 for the season – the club’s best defensive record in a decade. The bunker has earned plaudits from Milan royalty.
Mauro Tassotti, who formed one of the great Milan defences alongside Maldini, Franco Baresi and Alessandro Costacurta, said: “Tomori is good at winning the ball back, his speed is impressive. He anticipates a lot and he’s always aggressive.”
Alessandro Nesta said Tomori and Kalulu are “two modern centre-backs who put pressure high up the pitch and leave a lot of space behind – that allows the team to stay high, which is fundamental nowadays”. For former boss Fabio Capello, they represent “the future of Milan”.
The club’s fans won’t be looking any further than the trip to Sassuolo, a nerve-jangling prospect given that a talented Neroverdi side ran out 3-1 winners at San Siro in November.
Tomori was absent that day through injury, and three of Milan’s four league defeats this season have come when the England international was unavailable.
However, it was only after a shock 2-1 loss to Spezia in January – another game Tomori missed – that the defence hit its stride. Since then, the wall has been breached just six times in a 15-match unbeaten run.
Tomori has been central to that. It didn’t take long for the Englishman to usurp club captain Alessio Romagnoli in the pecking order after arriving last season, but a season-ending injury to Denmark international Simon Kjaer in December suddenly presented a new challenge.
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No longer was Tomori the young understudy to the old head, he became the guide to 21-year-old Kalulu. And he has played more minutes – 2,638 – than any other outfield player this season.
“They have formed a rock-solid partnership. Let’s remember that it isn’t easy to replace a player like Kjaer,” said former title-winning Milan coach Alberto Zaccheroni. “As soon as I saw Tomori last year, I understood we were in the presence of a top player.”
He is also hugely popular, earning praise for giving an interview in Italian in March, 14 months after joining the club. “Not perfect yet, but I’m trying,” he tweeted. Ever the student.
Pipping rivals Inter to the Scudetto in his first full season, and ending that long, agonising wait in the process, would write Tomori’s name into the history of one of the sport’s most illustrious clubs.
The anticipation is palpable, as are the nerves. An online ticket queue for the Sassuolo game exceeded 100,000 people, for a 21,500-capacity stadium.
One point will be enough for Milan, as head-to-head is the tiebreaker in Serie A and Inter, who play Sampdoria at home, sit two points behind.
For Tomori, immortality is within touching distance.
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