Sandro Tonali is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Serie A club Milan and the Italy national football team.
Tonali made his professional debut for Brescia Calcio on 26 August 2017, aged 17. On 28 April 2018 he scored his first professional career goal, in a 4–2 defeat against Salernitana in Serie B.
He joined AC Milan on a season-long loan for €10 million with an option to buy for €15 million, plus bonuses worth €10 million.Tonali finished the season with 37 appearances, 23 of those in the starting eleven.
On 8 July 2021, Milan officially purchased Tonali’s rights from Brescia and he signed a 5-year contract with the club.
He is dubbed as the next ‘Andreas Pirlo’.Tonali has also cited Steven Gerrard and Luka Modrić, along with Pirlo, as influences and compared his playing style to that of Gennaro Gattuso. As a 20-year-old, the central midfielder is displaying a maturity well above his age. At Brescia, Sandro Tonali was often used as the deepest midfielder, though his best role might be as a defensive midfielder. Sandro Tonali has been dubbed ‘the new Andrea Pirlo’ as he regularly functions as a ‘regista’ ‘or a deep-lying playmaker on the pitch. A good regista is not the type of player who runs from one side of the pitch to the other like a box-to-box midfielder but rather is someone who starts his attacking play by lying deep on his own half, just in front of the defense. Playing in this role, Sandro Tonali fits perfectly in a team playing to win, in a high-pressing team who like to dominate possession. He is a great passer and an outstanding distributor of the ball.Tonali joined AC Milan and he will wear number 8 jersey which is the typical number for a regista or a deep-lying playmaker.
Just like Andrea Pirlo, Tonali started his career with Brescia and signed for AC Milan.Both midfielders are great at dictating play with their passing range which quickly created a comparison between the pair. The 20-year old has already impressed in the same role as Pirlo for Brescia and the national team, but he knows he has miles to walk before being considered as the new pirlo.
Pirlo was hoping to convince the young talent to join Juventus to replace the ageing Miriam Pjanic but, ultimately, he was unsuccessful. Now that Sandro Tonali is joining a top team like AC Milan, he can show the world he is worthy of being called “the new Pirlo.”
If we compare his performance last season we can see that his ball creation was quite low. He averages only 2.1 compared to Joshua Kimmich and Rudy who are at 5.
If we compare Tonali key Passes vs completed passes we can see that he ranks 1.2 on Key Passes vs Comp passes. Ahead of him is Brozovic and Rudy with 1.55.
From the above radar we can see that Tonali has a percentile of 92 in dribblers tackled however on the downside he has high percentile of dribblers who dribbled past him. He ranks fairly well at blocks.
He ranks higher in shots from free kicks. He ranks higher on key passes and dead ball passes. He has a higher percentile on crosses to the penalty area.
Tonali Goal Map
If we take the last match between Atlanta and AC Milan, Tonali scored. Tonali pressurized the defender who was forced to make a mistake and it was one on one with the keeper and he scored a beauty.
Tonali Pass Map
From the above passing heat map we can see that he had a maximum amount of passes distributed onto the right side and the middle of the pitch. He had 12% of passes going forward.
With Italy national team boss Roberto Mancini having described the youngster as “incredibly gifted,” his reputation continues to gather pace.
Still a teenager, Tonali has the strength to hold off opponents and the skill to dance around them with the ball stuck to his feet like glue.
This is not a player who shows plenty of promise but is still a lightweight — his play already equal and above to that of a much more experienced professional.
Making the step-up to Serie A this season, Tonali has inevitably played some misplaced forward passes as he makes the adjustment to life in the top flight versus more adept defenders.
Yet he is still working with determination in order to win the ball back with tackles and interceptions, and not losing heart when his ideas don’t always work.
As with any young player, his game clearly needs some fine-tuning, and he will learn a lot in the tougher world of Serie A football this term.
Tonali has all the skills to develop into a midfielder that is much better equipped to deal with the requirements of the modern game with teams often showing a tendency for pressing and a high-tempo style of play.
Rather than dictating the play from a more static position, he will get up and down the pitch, make a tackle, and out-dribble his opponents with the grace and style of a ballerina.
While Sandro Tonali is still light years away from a peak Zinedine Zidane, his ability on the ball is much more reminiscent of the Frenchman’s style than that of his bearded Italian counterpart and is certainly one to watch out for in the future.
Will Sandro ever reach the heights of Milan legend Andreas Pirlo, only time will tell. He will get better as he grows old. He may play a vital role in Milan’s resurgence to the top. Watch out for this space.
