Thuram to Lukaku: Thu-la blossoms with Lautaro, so Inter are looking for a new totem

Marcus guarantees more dribbling and presence in the area. Now he has to make Romelu forget

He was a young man with a physique that seemed already sculpted by Phidias and a heavy surname behind his back. Gone to shop in the Rhineland he thought (rightly) to blossom faster than in the placid French championship. Marcus Thuram, son of the great Lilian, began to score for Borussia Mönchengladbach when he entered San Siro for the first time at the beginning of the 2020-21 season, the one that ended with the Conti scudetto: a very strange year, however, stadiums still sadly empty due to Covid and tripled checks at the entrance. To convince a Meazza employee to let him in, he needed Marcus to show his Wikipedia page on his cell phone: at the time it was much less rich than now, but it was nonetheless convincing. Looking back, that match in the Champions League, dated 21 October 2020 and finished 2-2 with Romelu’s brace (coincidentally), was truly a window into the future. The Frenchman himself, interviewed a few days before the match by the Gazzetta, had given proof of foresight: «I’ve always had great admiration for Lukaku. I followed him when he was very young, he has always been a source of inspiration for me. I hope to become stronger than him, I work every day for this», he said confidently. In short, everything seemed to have already been written three years ago: those two giants should have served in the same department. The younger Frenchman would have had to stay one step behind the more experienced Belgian to learn his magical arts, but he also knew that sooner or later the future would belong to him.

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