AC Milan is still looking for sharp strikers. After Filippo Inzaghi’s leaving, there has not been any attacker who is truly “bloody Milan”.
Though he did not have any special skills, Inzaghi keeps being the idol of the whole world. Besides his greatness in finding a good position, Inzaghi was also known as the Milan striker with number 9.
Talking about the 9 back number in Milan, this Italian club apparently has such a curse on it. No one knows what might be the cause, after Filippo Inzaghi, none of the strikers with number 9 was able to show his sharp performance.
The latest happened to Gonzalo Higuain. Having been victorious at Napoli and Juventus, Higuain really lost his sharpness after he landed at the San Siro. He was not even included in the strongest candidate for winning the most goals this season.
After the Italian League 2018/19 had run halfway, Gonzalo Higuain had just only scored 6 goals for AC Milan.
Feeling unfortunate, Il Pipita decided to move to London.
Had been taken off by Inzaghi in 2012, several potential strikers were unable to maximize their skills when they chose number 9 as their back number. Reporting from Sportmediaset, whoever the attacker was, when they used the back number of 9, they would never score many goals in the Italian League.
Suffered from injury during the season, Alexandre Pato in 2012/13 season had only recorded four appearances without scoring any goal.
The following season, Alessandro Matri was wearing number 9 costume. He only scored 1 goal in 15 appearances. Fernando Torres got the same case as he only managed to score one goal.
In 2015, Destro who decided to wear number 9 was only able to score 3 goals in 15 appearances.
The Brazilian striker, Luiz Adriano, was unable to show his sharpness and followed by the Lapadula who was not in such brilliant performance with il Rossoneri.
The next was Andre Silva. This Portuguese striker along with FC Porto was only able to contribute 2 goals in 24 appearances in Serie A.
After Gonzalo Higuain was considered “surrendered”, Milan had not stopped fighting by bringing in the best striker from Poland, Krzysztof Piatek.
Piatek was bought from Genoa for 35 million euros and contracted until 2023. His contract fee makes Piatek the most expensive Polish player, beating Arkadiusz Milik, which costs only 32 million euros.
Many people are wondering whether Piatek will be the next striker who faces the failure or succeed along with Milan. The fans’ concerns are mostly due to his 9 back number.
As it is known, this 23-year-old attacker is very fond of number 9.
Even so, Milan’s management still considered every risk which might come. Not wanting to be considered a failed purchase, the management refused when Piatek wanted to wear number 9.
This obviously relates to the curse that has haunted the Milan strikers. Leonardo and Paolo Maldini as parts of the management said that they did not give the number 9 to Piatek for a reason.
Making such a kind of challenge, this 183 cm tall player will only be allowed to wear number 9 after actually succeeding in proving his great performance.
Although the reason is somehow unreasonable, it psychologically admitted that such a challenge could affect the player’s performance. Just imagine, Caliber striker, Gonzalo Higuain, who had always scored more than 20 goals in a season, immediately dropped his skill when he joined Milan.
Those are why Milan’s management is being very careful about giving the number 9.
Filippo Inzaghi, as the last successful player with the back number 9 commented,
“The curse of number 9? I don’t know how they can beat it. But, I hope they will soon find a player with number 9 who can perform as good as when I was in Milan,”
“Even so, I find it hard to think about them. As an outsider, I don’t know what to say. I just love Milan. “
Piatek was first given a back number of 19 so that it will not be burdensome for him. That way, he would not think that he has failed when it is hard to score a goal.
Piatek has begun to prove his skill. He managed to score two goals in his first two matches with Milan. After being a substitute player in the first match, Piatek appeared as a starter in the second match, where he successfully scored two goals at once against Napoli.
Claiming himself to be an AC Milan fan since he was a child, Piatek has formed his playing style inspired by the icons of Milan. Piatek uses his brain on the field to read matches like Andrea Pirlo. He also becomes an attacker because he is inspired by Inzaghi.
“Filippo Inzaghi has always been my inspiration. When I came to Italy and thought what kind of attacker was being feared in Italy, the name of Inzaghi appeared,”
“That is why I believe that I must continue to make the game develop and put myself in a good position.”
With a pretty good start and pure ability, many predict that Piatek will become a first-class striker.
Plus, he does not wear the number 9 as his back number.
