It has been an incredible journey for midfielder Tommaso Pobega, who made his Champions League debut after being a Serie C player not that long ago.
As Di Marzio published on La Casa Di C, the latest big milestone in Pobega’s young career came on 6 September 2022, that being last night’s Champions League game away against Red Bull Salzburg when he made his debut in the competition off the bench.
It is a dream come true for a boy who grew up admiring Bastian Schweinsteiger for his ability as a football player but the mentality of NBA icon LeBron James, and playing in the Champions League suggests that something has gone right.
The first steps in the world of football saw Pobega play at San Luigi, a small town in the province of Trieste, and then he signed for Triestina before being spotted in 2013 at the age of 14 by Milan.
He stood out for his intelligence on and off the pitch and for his versatility in the middle of the field. A first loan spell to Ternana in Serie C followed, where he amassed 32 appearances and scored 3 goals. Then he went to Pordenone moving up to Serie B for 2019-20, and to Spezia in 2021-22 for his first test of Serie A football and finally to Torino.
Vincenzo Italiano managed to bring out all the qualities of the 1999-born midfielder at Spezia and in 20 appearances he collected 6 goals and 3 assists. Torino was also an experience that made him grow, and Milan watched with a smile on their face.
They tried to bring him back but Milan and head coach Stefano Pioli believe in Pobega and they are slowly inserting him more and more into the plans. In the Champions League debut, Tommaso came on and played with the intensity that shows he is ready to take his big chance at Milan, one he has worked hard out on loan to earn.
Yesterday was an improvement in Pobega’s performance in midfield but the question marks remain, With all due respect to him he is nowhere near Tonali or bennacer’s level. In time we will see if he can grow and establish himself , he deserves time as do many other players at Milan.
How many matches has he played after his injury? How long did it take for Kessie to look even a decent midfielder after joining Milan? How long it took for Tonali? People seem to forget certain things pretty quickly…
He is a donkey.
Absolute trash. To be fair, I’ll reserve total final judgment until he actually gets fit or up to pace but I doubt there would be an improvement. Two tackles vs Kessie in a single game got the comments section in a tizzy last season, although Kessie improved to be dominant in said game thereafter. Don’t see any of those guys now talking bout we dont need Kessie when we have Pobega..smh. “Lit up” average club Torino and fans thought he was good.
If ppl actually watched the other games he played and not just the one vs Milan they would have seen this problem.
“Don’t see any of those guys now talking bout we dont need Kessie when we have Pobega..smh.”
You people do want to pick up fights every chance there is. 🙂
How many minutes has he played after his injury? He’s in a new environment and has a new role. Only natural he doesn’t look like Modric yet (not that he ever will either). Give it a couple of weeks and he’ll return to his level.
Injury? What injury? I thought it was just a terrible pre-season 🤔
And yes I was with the smoke today lol 😂
It killed me everytime a Kessie article came out last year, the fall back in the comments was “we have Pobega who is already better than Kessie” 🤦♂️ and they just disappeared now 🤦♂️😅
Like no, Kessie was and still is top 5 cdm in Europe. Without him we wouldn’t have won the scudetto. Pobega is certainly no replacement and we didnt properly replace that loss
A very decent player. His place is not in the first of Milan. We needed a better midfielder to replace Kessie.
I saw a completely different player than the one SempreMilan writes about. Hopefully I’m wrong but the outings I have seen are far from convincing and I’m one of the guys that thought he would be useful this year.
I think the biggest disappointment so far is how slow he is. Yesterday he got flat beat to every lose ball and attacking players had no trouble running right past him. He’s so slow every tackle he attempts is so far behind the play he risks a yellow.
Lacks both tempo and quality. I doubt he will ever be a continuous starter for Milan. Sell him before his price falls too much.
Needs Pobega as home grown player useful in the UCL. Nowadays very difficult looking for italian midfielder as good as Tonali, and Barella even Locatelli or Cristante
He looked better last year. I sure hope he improves; but not sure what these authors are writing about in terms of his performances this season.
Yesterday he was very clumsy and committed a bad foul within a minute or 2 of subbing into the match giving RBS a free kick in a very dangerous position just right of the penalty area. I think that was borderline yellow card worthy.
Also, he took two bad shots — the first one was a fine decision to shoot but the shot was poor. The 2nd shot was not only a terrible shot (way over the bar not even close); but also a terrible decision to shoot at all because Leao was WIDE OPEN to his left calling for the ball (and maybe you noticed, Leao threw his hands up in the air upset Pobega didn’t pass to him.
Then after that, he committed another foul that he was VERY lucky they didn’t give him a yellow card. He looks lumbering and slow and clumsy. He needs to work on his footwork with some fitness trainer.
But as of what limited action we’ve seen so far with him and Adli — Adli seems much better. He’s barely had chances; but he made a positive impact immediately upon getting on the field. Nice receipt of long passes, good dribbling, got in good crosses, and he’s much quicker than Pobega.
It is understandable that Pobega made UCL squad because of the homegrown rule. However, it is sad that Pioli chose Brahim Diaz over Adli. Having Diaz coming on for CdK kills team spirit.