A late run, a run in behind, a finish. Either way, he scores. Wherever you put him, Alphadjo Cisse finds the goal. He announced himself on the Europa League stage with a hat-trick to remember, taking Salzburg apart and rewriting the record books in the process. Born in 2006, he became the youngest Italian ever to score three times in a single European match, breaking a record Nicolò Tresoldi had set just forty-eight hours earlier. In a domestic game too often short of technical quality, his emergence is a rare source of light.
When Milan’s season began, Cisse was still on the margins, having spent the summer on trial and with no guarantee of a place. By mid-October, he had become a regular in Amorim’s squad. In a side struggling badly for goals, he has been scoring at a rate reminiscent of Shevchenko or Kaká at their best: five in seven appearances, most of them off the bench. Before the trip to Austria, he had never scored in Europe, let alone scored three times in a single game. He has now done both before turning twenty, despite having little in common with the conventional centre-forward.
Cisse came through as a wide attacker, unsettling defences with his unpredictability on the ball and his ability to time a run between the lines. Those qualities pulled Salzburg apart, and they have helped make him Milan’s leading scorer. He has moved closer to goal without abandoning the instincts that made him dangerous in the first place. “Winning was all that mattered,” he said afterwards. “The manager and the squad welcomed me so warmly that everything became easier. The movements are similar when you score as a proper striker; I played up front for the Under-21s, and that experience stays with you.”
The transition, in other words, is not quite as sudden as the goals might suggest: he has played through the middle before, even if he is now doing it on a much bigger stage. He speaks and plays with the composure of an established professional, yet he is still a teenager making his way in a team that has struggled to find its feet. He seems entirely at ease among his teammates, makes decisions without fuss and shows an instinctive understanding of what his talent demands. The goals are remarkable, but so is the lack of visible adjustment required to find them. That may be the most interesting thing about him. Last season, Cisse came close to breaking into Serie A with Aquilani’s Catanzaro. Performing well in Serie B is one thing; stepping up a level, choosing the right option and delivering while a team around you struggles is another. After his third goal, he embraced Rabiot, who had supplied the assist. For a moment, they looked less like a veteran and a youngster than two players entirely comfortable in one another’s company. Cisse’s readiness is striking precisely because it seems so difficult to account for. At his age, you would expect more signs of a player still learning. So far, there have been remarkably few.