AC Milan forward Rafael Leao was filmed seeming to imitate the late Diego Maradona with his ball-juggling during the warm-up ahead of a clash with Lecce.
The Portuguese forward kept the ball bouncing on his head for an impressive amount of time before letting it rest there, and then bringing the ball down to continue juggling.
It was almost identical to what Maradona did whilst warming up for Napoli’s UEFA Cup semi-final against Bayern Munich in 1989.
Leao has come into his own recently after a very tough start to the season and this warm-up in front of the San Siro crowd before scoring in a 3-0 win over Lecce shows that the confidence is coming back for the former Sporting man.
Before the goal against Lecce, Leao grabbed a goal and an assist when Milan beat Fiorentina 2-1, part of their five Serie A wins in a row in recent weeks under Stefano Pioli.
Diego Maradona / Rafael Leaopic.twitter.com/17BvZIxUaR
— Milan Posts (@MilanPosts) April 7, 2024
Good, now he only needs to learn how to take a freekick like Maradona.
Let’s be honest, Diego looks like a much more technical player in this video.
Plenty of players do that every week though.
Absolutely love Leao but he’s no Maradona..
You guys not serious.
The head thing is regular juggling. Done it and seen it all the time.
The one where Maradona kicks the ball 20m straight up vertical and lands exactly at his foot where he was standing (not even moving) then he kicks it straight back up and repeats… Now that’s fcking insane!
That was mesmerizing indeed.