How do you go from not playing at AFCON to playing at EURO even without a single game for your country? Well, it‘s like that if you are Michael Ijemuan Folorunsho. The Italian midfielder born in Rome, but of Nigerian descent had a rough path to the football world. From the Serie A club to the thrid league (and back), from the brink of AFCON to the debut at EURO, from being ignored by Simone Inzaghi and Carlo Ancelotti to beling adored by Luciano Spalletti. Nigeria had a chance to snach the 1.90cm midfielder but former coach José Peseiro failed to invite the player, but Spalletti did and he is now playing for Italy.A special night for Folorunsho 🧢1⃣ 💙#ITABIH #Azzurri #VivoAzzurro pic.twitter.com/4hwwaQPDR5— Italy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@Azzurri_En) June 9, 2024 Folorunsho claims he called the coach numerous times before he got the invite from Italy (in March 2024).”I wanted to play in the AFCON. I wrote to the coach José Peseiro, but he didn’t answer. Finally I contacted him by phone and he promised me that he would call me, but the days went by and he didn’t” he said to the ‘OwnGoalNigeria’ portal.Folorunsho è il vincitore del @cryptocom 𝗚𝗼𝗮𝗹 𝗢𝗳 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵 di febbraio🤯🔥 @HellasVeronaFC pic.twitter.com/pp9PCDfou3— Lega Serie A (@SerieA) March 6, 2024 What Peseiro didn‘t see, Spalletti saw in the player. He intrigued him so much that he included him in his final list of 26 players even thou he didn‘t made his debut for Italy. He even introducted him as a sub against Albania.”He is a beast. He gives you different solutions from a physical point of view, he has an outside shot and is good at heading shots, a very important aspect, in this type of competition, in the plays from set pieces” said Spalletti.Nigeria’s savior joins LazioFolorunsho started his career at Lazio‘s youth team and was even called by current Inter coach Simone Inzaghi for Coppa Italia, but was too young for the pressure and ended up in Virtus, in Italy‘s third division, where he was ‘saved‘ by Gaetano D’Agostino, former Roma playmaker.”He was a bit of a ‘runaway horse’, but I quickly saw great potential in him. I once told him: ‘What do you want, to stay in Serie C forever? If you don’t make it to Serie A, excuse the term, you’re a idiot” he recalled earlier. His good games made Napoli sign him in 2019 for one million euros, but he didn‘t impress nor Carlo Ancelotti, nor Gennaro Gattuso and not even Luciano Spalletti at the beginning. Finally in his sixth loan (Hellas Verona), coach Marco Baroni (now Lacio‘s boss) used his talents and the Nigerian played played as a midfielder, interior, midfielder, on the wing, second striker, ‘false 9’ and finally caught the attention of Spalletti.EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP – GROUP STAGETuesday19.00: (1.85) Turkey (3.50) Georgia (4.40)22.00: (1.55) Portugal (4.00) Czech R. (6.25)Wednesday16.00: (1.53) Croatia (3.90) Albania (7.00)19.00: (1.35) Germany (4.90) Hungary (9.50)22.00: (3.70) Scotland (3.40) Switzerland (2.05)
