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00:00 A player like Ismael Ben Nasser is not born from nothing.
00:05 You need a lot of patience, a lot of ability to forge his talent,
00:09 which is refined but also delicate, which is crystal clear but also soft.
00:14 And then, as is used with all the leaders of the prefecture,
00:17 you have to know how to get your hands on it.
00:19 Isma's natural talent, from the first meetings with a young player,
00:24 immediately appeared clear to everyone.
00:26 Since his adolescence in Provence, Ismael Ben Nasser grew up in the Arles team.
00:31 The characteristic of his career has always been to be able to alternate the flavors and moods of the province
00:37 with the rhythms and the clamors of the big metropolis.
00:40 Arles in Provence, London with the Arsenal shirt,
00:45 and then again the healthy and robust Italian province Empoli,
00:48 up to AC Milan in Milan.
00:51 With Ismael Ben Nasser, who team after team, experience after experience,
00:54 he has continued to insert small pieces, fundamental bricks,
00:58 into the repertoire of his talent.
01:01 Isma first perceived and then received.
01:04 He did everything he could to live within the years of his training,
01:08 and each team has never forgotten to progress,
01:12 to explore new areas of his margin of improvement,
01:15 to allow his talent not to be trapped.
01:19 Because it is the talent of sweetness, Ismael Ben Nasser's,
01:23 but also that of the football times, of the evolving tactics,
01:28 of the flow of play in the middle of the field.
01:30 The talent of a touch of ball, smooth and refined, that does not train,
01:34 even if it must be integrated and supported, by the physical form,
01:37 by the race, with the right dose of athletic part.
01:40 Of course, that too, must be structured also from that point of view,
01:44 because the opponents are tall and strong,
01:46 because the contrasts in the game where he is, are always tough and hard.
01:51 But the important talent, fundamental, to be breathed in, to be cultivated with care,
01:55 has always been his horizon, and in all the teams he has played in,
01:59 this has emerged glamorously on the surface,
02:01 as Ismael Ben Nasser himself tells in the podcast "The Red and Black Stories".
02:07 I can tell you one thing for all the four teams, moments.
02:12 When you do the right job, in the end you learn,
02:16 and then you go higher and higher,
02:20 you learn and you go higher and higher.
02:22 With patience, of course, but I did the job at Arsenal,
02:25 I went to Arsenal, I worked a lot at Arsenal,
02:28 then I went to Empoli, I worked a lot at Empoli,
02:31 I arrived at Milan, I worked a lot at Milan,
02:34 and I'm working a lot to play every game,
02:38 to give everything and to try to win many things.
02:42 And this always goes from work,
02:45 and I understood that at Arsenal, at Empoli and also here.
02:50 If Milan has a player of value and of the Aprilianness of Ismael Ben Nasser in its organ,
02:55 it is also due to the charm of the Premier League and the continuity of the Africa Cup.
03:00 The charm of the Premier League.
03:02 Ismael Ben Nasser breathed it out, he lived it, he kept it inside him,
03:07 and he kept it in his tank, in his bag of experiences for the following years.
03:12 He, who between the age of 18 and 20,
03:15 played for the youth teams of Arsenal,
03:18 and played in the first team in the League Cup.
03:21 And the Premier League is something that you get used to,
03:24 that accompanies you both when you return to it and when it remains as a human,
03:28 technical, environmental and professional background,
03:31 and the reason for an entire career.
03:33 When he arrived at Empoli in Corsuo,
03:35 Ismael dreamed of making the right dose of experience to return to London,
03:39 even if it was not so, because instead of the London Calling,
03:42 the AC Milan Calling was launched.
03:45 An important call in a summer moment of 2019,
03:48 in which many Red and Black fans, and not only,
03:51 but also a large part of the critics,
03:53 thought that having played in Empoli 2018-2019,
03:57 well trained but retarded in Serie B,
03:59 was like a kind of decrease.
04:02 His football was not only nourished by talent,
04:05 but also by self-esteem, conviction, determination.
04:09 And he also owes a lot to the Africa Cup,
04:11 because after a series of misfortunes,
04:13 when Isma returned to the Red and Black jersey
04:15 at the end of January 2022,
04:18 just after the Africa Cup,
04:19 he was back, just him.
04:22 He had regained his rhythm, his brilliance,
04:24 and the months of February and March 2022
04:26 were decisive for the Milan Scudetto,
04:29 also thanks to the great goal scored by Benassera in Cagliari,
04:32 one of the most beautiful actions in the history of that Red and Black league,
04:35 and also thanks to his performance as a three-quarter striker at the Maradona Stadium,
04:39 not just any stadium, but the Maradona Stadium,
04:41 the stadium of Napoli against Napoli,
04:43 in one of the key matches for the championship.
04:46 Ismael Benasser, every experience in the right place,
04:50 every moment of growth,
04:51 valued and capitalized to continue to look always and constantly beyond.
04:56 Yet when Ismael Benasser arrived in Milan in the summer of 2019,
05:00 there was a coach, Marco Giampaolo,
05:02 who more than him kept talking about Lucas Biglia.
05:05 Lucas Biglia would be missing.
05:07 Certainly a player who deserves respect,
05:09 an important career, that of the Argentine,
05:11 who was constantly pointed out, for example, to Ismael,
05:15 who took action and captured many lessons
05:19 from the work and the mentality of Lucas Biglia.
05:22 Even if today the Red and Black fans have forgotten
05:25 that market blow of the summer of 2017
05:28 and think only and exclusively of him, Isma.
05:31 This makes me very, very happy
05:34 because they make me feel important.
05:37 This is a player who needs it
05:39 and then I have to do just one thing
05:42 and give this to the fans,
05:45 playing good games and giving everything.
05:48 The Africa Cup was present in Ismael Benasser's life
05:52 also in January 2024,
05:54 a strong call for him,
05:56 who had suffered a very hard, very serious injury on May 10, 2023,
06:00 in the semifinal of the Champions League against Inter.
06:04 A moment in his life in which he had to look inside,
06:07 he had to dig into his rehabilitation,
06:09 into his therapy,
06:11 he had to look for very deep, very important support feelings.
06:14 The closeness of the family,
06:16 the psychological support of the whole club
06:18 and all his teammates.
06:20 It is also so that Isma managed to return in advance
06:23 in the most prudent times that were indicated for his return to the field.
06:26 He did it, he came back to the big one,
06:28 he made a great assist at the end of 2023
06:31 for his new team-mate Christian Polisic against Sassuolo.
06:34 Three points for Milan and one month,
06:36 that of January 2024,
06:38 dedicated then, in part, to the Africa Cup.
06:41 How not to remember that Milan received Ismael Benasser
06:44 in gifts from the Africa Cup in the summer of 2019,
06:47 when he had won the trophy and was elected MVP of the event.
06:51 Then with Stefano Pioli and he grew a lot.
06:53 Milan received from the Africa Cup
06:55 a very important Benasser also in January 2022
06:59 and it also has a lot on Benasser available,
07:02 starting from February 2024,
07:05 for the top levels of the Europa League
07:08 and for the decisive leap in the league
07:10 in the first half of 2024,
07:13 because, as the Red-Black fans often say,
07:15 there is a Milan with him and a Milan without him.
07:18 Yes.
07:19 (music)
07:21 [BLANK_AUDIO]