22,033 GIANLUIGI DONNARUMMA, 22

AC Milan, Goalkeeper

At four, Gianluigi Donnarumma would tag along with elder brother Antonio to Club Napoli in Naples, the city where he was born. By the time he was eight, “Gigio” was being tipped for big things. Accelerated development has been a way of life since. At 11, he was 6’2”; he is now 6’5”.

In October 2015, when Donnarumma first played for Milan — the club he supported as a boy — he was 16 and the youngest goalkeeper to debut in Serie A. At 17, he played for Italy for the first time and no one younger had played in goal for them in 104 years.

At 22, he has played over 200 games for Milan. If he wears 99 it is to tell the world the year of his birth.

“Gigio is the Maradona of goalkeepers,” his agent Mino Raiola said in 2017, after letting Milan know that 11 clubs were interested. Milan agreed on a 6 million Euro annual deal until 2021. They also called back brother Antonio, who is also a shot-stopper (as was uncle Enrico Alfano).

From being timid and the youngest on the team, Donnarumma is now “one of the guys who has been around the longest”; one who has survived three presidents and six coaches. So he realised the need to “make myself heard”, he has said in interviews. And from his father Alfonso Donnarumma almost agreeing to a deal with Inter, he is now a Milan mainstay.

In him, Italy have a goalkeeper who has not only succeeded Gianluigi Buffon as the national team’s first choice but could also rival the latter’s longevity. Buffon, 43, started playing for Italy when he was 19 years and 274 days old. By the time he was that age, Donnarumma had already played almost three years of international football.