May is here and Milan is in full swing. In a few days, next Wednesday at 22:00 on the 10th of the month, the next Derby della Madonnina will conquer not only the city and Italy, but the entire football world, which will be waiting for which of the compatriots Milan and Inter will prevail . the first step towards the Champions League final. This is a fight that is always fascinating, especially now when it decides something as important as a ticket to the final of the world’s biggest club competition in all sports, a match that the whole football world looks forward to every year.

To the question “who, in your opinion, will be Milan’s main weapon in this semi-final?”, Most fans are unlikely to answer in the same way as coaches. In these kinds of questions, people are usually looking for… a famous scorer or a gifted midfielder who can decide the game with his intelligence and passing. In this case, most fans will point the finger at Rafa Leau, the explosive Portuguese striker who has rocked the Milan shirt for the past three years and was instrumental in putting the Rossoneri one step ahead of a brilliant final. .

The coaches will probably go the other way and vote on a completely different issue. In their own world, the motto is: “Attack cuts tickets, but defense gets headlines”, so it will probably surprise many to hear that in the race among the best technicians, the majority would give their vote to … “pistol”! However, it is wrong to be surprised. Although this nickname directly refers to the “killer” center forward, in fact they will vote for … the goalkeeper! His name is Mike Menian and if he isn’t already, he’ll be the #1 goaltender in the world very soon!

Hailing from French Guiana (born July 3, 1995), Mike Peterson Mannion, 28, is not yet a fully recognizable face for football fans around the world, but he is a gifted goalkeeper capable of making a difference at the highest level. , competition. And for this, his formidable physical qualities and amazing reflexes are not enough, which allows him to make excellent interventions, such as Kvaratskelija’s decisive penalty kick in the Champions League quarter-final against Napoli or impressive in the previous stage against Tottenham.

The big difference is in how he perceives the game, in the ability to correctly direct his teammates and create well-formed attacks from the defense with his first ball. He learned this skill as a child, when he played ball in the slums of Paris, trying to find a way out of the big problems brought to his family by the death of his father, who left him an orphan at a very young age. .

Menian only wanted to play as a striker, and he was very good at it, hence the nickname “pistolero” that accompanies him to this day. But he had an imposing body, a special physique that made his coaches at the Villiers-les-Belles Academy push him to play as a goalkeeper, even though he wanted to wear number 10 and play as a center forward. When a man from Paris Saint-Germain came to visit him at the age of 15, his coach forced him to play goalkeeper at half-time. This persistence finally opened the door for Paris, who saw him not as a striker but as a promising goalkeeper.

His stay in a large metropolitan club was not rosy. He grew up in Paris Saint-Germain but did not get the credibility he expected and, when it came time to renew himself and prove himself, chose to walk out the front door at the age of 20. His choice was Lille, a team that believed in him, wanted him and demanded him. In the 3 years that he was in the first team of Paris, he did not play a single official game on his feet, but he managed to shake hands with Zlatan Ibrahimovic in training! At the very least, it takes courage to deal with Ibra, even if you’ve gotten to the point of becoming “someone,” not to mention a kid who’s played a few games (42 in total) for the Paris B team alone.

In “Lilui” he immediately stood out. He only played 10 games with the minors due to… his age and immediately took the first team gloves where he played in 149 games, enough to convince Milan to offer him a rich contract in the summer of 2021. by far the longest of his career. There he again found Zlatan on his way, reconciled with him and started his career, showing amazing performance in decisive matches against Tottenham and Napoli, in Milan and beyond.

Meignan was unlucky not to make the France squad for Qatar even though he was in Didier Deschamps’ original team for the World Cup. Due to the first serious injury in his career, he did not enter the field for about 5 months, and after the final defeat to Argentina, the Tricolor manager said that the biggest loss for his team was not Benzema, Kante or Pogba, but Menian! Many have come to the conclusion that if he had played instead of Joris, France would have become world champions again!

Deschamps’ confidence was not only in words, but also in action. When he returned to duty, he gave him Joris’ place and made him the first choice, despite strong competition for a place under the posts. Meignan justified it both with her first appearances in the tricolor and then with Milan in the Champions League, where he is credited with a series of at least 10 excellent interventions in matches against Tottenham and Napoli, which quite unexpectedly led her to victory. semi-final.

His excellent reflexes, instincts and great perception helped him become a penalty shooter. He always finds a way to “play” with the player’s mind by doing something that throws him off balance, which is why he is one of the first to ironically react to new rules that prohibit goalkeepers from moving along the line or anything that can confuse an opponent player: “In In 2026, the only thing goalkeepers will be allowed to do during a shot is turn their backs!”

Another of his remarkable qualities is his excellent ball control with his feet. His passing rate is 94% in Serie A, he chooses not only close passes, but mostly long ones, with the permission of his coach. Contrary to formation laws that require a goaltender to work with defenders to build up an attack with close passes from his zone, Stefano Pioli has given him the freedom to throw powerful volleys, simply because he almost always covers a teammate. far.

At 28 years old, Mike Menian is considered one of the best, if not the best, goalkeeper in the world at the moment. The only thing left for him to establish himself so firmly in the minds of the fans is recognition. Milan’s low flying in Europe in recent years has not helped make his figure familiar to the average sports fan, and not just to those who practice Campionato a lot. This has begun to change with his own involvement and if he manages to make it to the end of the road with AC Milan this year in the Champions League, he will take a big step towards making his name known all over the world!