Fikayo Tomori has claimed to The Players’ Tribune that he was convinced to join AC Milan by former Chelsea teammate Thiago Silva.
The England international made the choice to leave Stamford Bridge in 2021 after falling out of favour under Frank Lampard.
This is despite the former Derby manager having him at his disposal in the Championship, and also handing him is big break at Chelsea.
After the end of their transfer ban, the Blues spent big to try and close the gap to the top of the table, making things difficult for their young stars.
Tomori is one of those who suffered, and eventually got his move to Serie A where he has since flourished.
He has now claimed that he spoke to a number of his former teammates before deciding on the move, with Silva helping him make up his mind despite not speaking English.
Silva convinced Tomori to join Milan
He said: “But then I spoke to some of the boys at Chelsea who’d been in Italy — Toni Rüdiger, Mateo Kovacic and Emerson. Toni had been at Roma, and he was always going on and on about how good the support was. He came up to me like, ‘So you going to Milan? Listen, if you’ve got the chance, you go.
“The fans … it’s just different in Italy. It’s crazy. I was the man there, you know? Just give everything and they’re gonna love you.”
“Then there was Thiago Silva. He didn’t even speak English, but when he heard what we were talking about he just went, “Milan?” and gave a massive thumbs up! Hahaha!
“I was like, O.K., get me on that plane!”
While Tomori has been generally seen as a success story at the San Siro, he may not point to his two games against his former side as ones where he’s proved it.
He was poor at Stamford Bridge, before an early red card gave his side an impossible task in the reverse fixture.