Champions Milan-Inter, Francesco Acerbi AC Milan fan and Inter idol

It would take a book to tell his whole story. Indeed, another book since Francesco Acerbi has already written one to explain how he won the most difficult game, the one against cancer. An illness that he fought with courage and which, by his own admission, gave him the push to become a better man and a better footballer. “Without that tumor-he told him-I wouldn’t be who I am now”. And maybe tonight he wouldn’t be at San Siro, starting at 35 in the Champions League semi-final, wearing the Inter shirt. If in the summer of 2012 they had told him what would happen almost 11 years later, he would have burst out laughing and would not have given any credit to the interlocutor (understatement). So he had just been hired by the CEO. Galliani to reinforce Massimiliano Allegri’s defense and had crowned the dream of a lifetime, wearing the jersey of his favorite team. Ace was a profoundly different person compared to the current one: by his own admission, today’s measured man was a boy who, hurt by his father’s death a few months earlier, thought above all of partying and drinking; that he felt he had already arrived and had little stimulus. Milan lost him in the middle of the season (in January he was “sent” to Genoa), but on the other hand he had the strength to beat the cancer, to regain Serie A with Chievo and Sassuolo, to come close to breaking the attendance record Zanetti’s streak in the league, to be bought by Lazio to replace De Vrij and to win a European championship with the Italy shirt that he had “tasted” the first time as a Rossoneri. Now he’s at Inter, the team that as a young AC Milan fan was perhaps less sympathetic to him and of the Nerazzurri fans he has become an idol for his professionalism and for how he was able to transform summer prejudices into applause. Those who had accompanied his landing at Pinetina.

Key player

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Of this Inter Acerbi is a key player, one of those low cost signings who, together with Onana and Mkhitaryan, changed the season of Inzaghi, his great “sponsor”. On paper he had been hired to replace Ranocchia and perform the functions of … sixth defender. In reality he quickly became a starter and relegated De Vrij to the bench. He wanted to prove that whoever had put him aside at Lazio was wrong and that he still had a lot to give. Mission accomplished in full, so much so that Marotta and Ausilio have given a mandate to Francesco’s agent, Federico Pastorello, to find a solution with Lazio to keep him at Pinetina without paying the 4 million fixed for the right of redemption. So far he has played 41 official matches and above all he has won, playing well, both derbies in which he has been on the field: the Super Cup one in Riad and the return one in the league. The Inter fans had received him with distrust due to those “shameful” accusations (as he defined them in an interview with the Gazzetta dello Sport) that were made thanks to the smile following Tonali’s goal in Lazio-Milan 1-2 in the April 2022. His explanations had been of no use: someone had questioned his professionalism, now clear even to those who did not know him. The Lion, this is his nickname, is someone who never gives up and gives nothing away. In this 2022-23, then, he is very similar to a man … on a mission because he wants to demonstrate that the end of his career can wait and that he is certainly not as finished as some thought in the Capital. “I’m not here to be an extra,” he said in September. Promise kept.

Only Inter

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Tonight Acerbi will be at the center of the backlog and will meet Giroud, almost his age. He won the duel with the French both in the Super Cup and in the league, in the second leg, but he knows that in this double Champions League semi-final everything will be different: the tension will be even greater and the margin of error minimal. Up for grabs is the final on 10 June in Istanbul, a goal that is worth a career for him who, in May 2010, when Inter lifted the cup from the Big Ears in Madrid, was in the second division of Lega Pro with Pavia . Now he will be among the undisputed protagonists of a match that everyone would like to experience. He will be wearing the shirt that a decade ago was considered “wrong” and which he now honors with the performance and behavior of a true professional. For example, the apology solves the fans on social media after the mistakes made in Inter-Lazio 3-1. A non-trivial gesture, like a real man.