Despite earning himself a spot in the first team on the back of an impressive campaign with Cremonese, Nicolò Fagioli has been serving as a benchwarmer since the start of the season – an unpleasant task to say the least.
But yesterday, the 21-year-old made the most out of his second half introduction, leading Juventus towards a timely victory over their hosts Lecce.
Max Allegri’s middle of the park immediately improved with the young Italian on the pitch, becoming significantly more fertile.
Moreover, the club’s youth product scored a splendid curler which proved to be the solitary goal of the encounter.
The winner prompted mad celebrations, with the entire squad mobbing the midfielder who struggled to hold back the tears.
After the match, Fagioli tried to explain why scoring his maiden goal for the senior Juventus meant so much to him, while describing it as a dream.
“I’ve been waiting for a lifetime for this goal with this shirt, it was a dream come true!” said the former Cremonese man in his post-match interview as reported by the club’s official website.
“I wanted to go and celebrate with the bench and with my teammates, they helped me a lot.
“It can be said that it was a goal ‘alla Del Piero‘. As a child I often watched how he played, however I really like playing in front of the defence, as I get to play more balls and work on expanding the width.
“Our task [as youngsters] is to make as much of an impact as possible and our more experienced teammates make us feel secure. Waiting for my moment wasn’t easy, but I think I made myself ready for it.”
