While the likes of Francesco Camarda, Kevin Zeroli and Diego Sia often dominate the attention when it comes to AC Milan’s youth sector, Lorenzo Ossola is another name you should get used to seeing.
La Gazzetta dello Sport claim that one day Mauro Bianchessi, former manager of the Rossoneri youth sector, stopped Ossola after a training session and said: “Boy, you really remind me of Redondo”.
The little boy smiled, he was only 7 years old. He didn’t know who the player he had just been compared to was. Back home, he opened the computer and searched for videos of the Argentine talent on Youtube and fell in love with his elegant movements, those precise plays, and promised to become just like him.
That child is growing up and still has a lot to prove but this year with Milan U17 he made the difference. He scored 16 goals and three assists in 25 games and no one on a record-breaking team did better than him. They won the league ahead of Inter and will play the play-off phase in June.
Ossola moves behind the strikers and invents with his left foot. He frames the goal perfectly and when he shoots from the edge of the area it is always a problem for the opposing goalkeeper. Yet, as a child, he played to try thwart others scoring.
He started in the Varese youth team as a central defender when he was four years old and at that time his father Andrea used to take him to watch the senior side at Varese, as well as around top games in Serie A.
Ossola’s mother also always worked in football: she welcomed young players from abroad who arrived in the youth sector at Varese. The boys often spent the afternoons with Lorenzo and he tried to convince them to go and play in the courtyard.
From central defender he became a midfielder, then he moved forward to attacking midfielder with a license to score goals. He has character and a lot of quality with the ball at his feet and continues to grow at Milan, having arrived at the age of 7.
Every day from Brinzio he went to the Vismara Centre (now PUMA House of Football): a three-hour drive there and back. He got on the shuttle and started doing his homework. He came home at 10pm and finished the last things from school.
It wasn’t easy, but the boy was already clear that his life would be on a football pitch. He also remembers very well the first time at San Siro: 31 August 2014, Milan-Lazio. It ended 3-1 for the Rossoneri with goals from Honda, Muntari and Menez.
Little Lorenzo was also cheering from the stands. With the youth teams he completed the entire process until he reached the U17s. This year he also made three appearances with the U18s.
He is a reserved player, he has no posts on social media and is focused on his career. He signed his first professional contract until 2026 and now he dreams of playing at San Siro, like Redondo.
