Junior Messias, the Heavenly Scalata

The Ascent from Eccellenza to Champions League

So often we hear feel-good stories of talented teenage footballers rising up through the ranks of small clubs who then go on to succeed at the highest levels that club football can offer.

For Milan fans a prime example is Sandro Tonali, a gifted midfielder who was brought to the San Siro from Brescia after winning awards such as Serie B Footballer of the Year 2018 and Tuttosport’s Golden Boy of 2020.

But we don’t often hear about twenty-five-year-old delivery boys getting the chance to play professional football, although I’m sure every Deliveroo rider has fantasised about it..

Hang on a minute! What about Santiago Nunez — the Mexican illegal immigrant — who was scouted by Newcastle United after a kick-about with his mates in Los Angeles? Ring any bells? Well, that’s the plot of the 2005 movie, Goal.

Welcome back to Planet Reality here in 2021, where Stefano Pioli’s final transfer task was to fill the void left by the acrimonious departure of Hakan Calhanoğlu to rival Inter Milan after four seasons with the Rossoneri.

And with that inglorious desertion from Casa Milan, opportunity now knocks for Walter Messias Junior, the Brazilian immigrant who came to Italy to find work and begin a new life.

On the final day of the transfer window, Milan has brought the 30-year-old on board. He joins on a €2.6 million loan deal from Crotone with an option to buy for €5.4m plus an additional €1m in add-ons.

“The moment I saw AC Milan written I was filled with emotion, this is my favourite club”.

Junior Messias signs for AC Milan, 2021. Image ACMilan.com

A criminally underrated attacker with a devastating left foot and pace to burn, Messias is a man of religious faith, showcasing his devotion nine times in Serie A last term — a sign of the cross for each goal.

In fact, the word “messias” literally translates to ‘the anointed one’, a saviour of a group of people. However, in the recently discovered Book of Walter Junior, the liberator is a former Torino midfielder of the 1980s.

In 2015 Ezio Rossi, who’d also coached the Granata from 2003 to 2005, just happened to be watching an amateur match between friends in Turin. While it’s unknown how many goals Messias scored that evening, he’d burned his image into Rossi’s frontal and temporal lobes.

When Rossi was offered the managerial role at Casale later that summer, he immediately chased the signature of Messias — working then as a delivery boy for an appliance company — and made the Brazilian his main attacking weapon.

There is even a significantly humble link between the beginning of Walter Junior’s Italian calcio adventure and his first foray into the top tier with Crotone.

Casale, a forgotten former Italian football champion of centuries past, had held the title of worst ever defence in Serie A. That was until Messias’ Crotone conceded 92 goals last season, one more than the Nerostellati did back in 1933/34.

Under Rossi, Messias struck home twenty-one goals which attracted the attention of Serie D club, Chieri, but would be without a team by the end of the 2016/17 season. Gozzano, another fourth division suitor, added the lively South American to their roster and the move immediately paid off, winning promotion to Serie C.

Four years into his footballing crusade, Crotone coach Giovanni Stroppa acquired Messias for €400,000 when he was 27 years of age. He would play his first-ever Serie B game for the Rossoblu in August 2019, a nil-all draw at home against Cosenza. His first goal would follow four months later in December.

Although it took Messias a while to make an impression on Serie B football, Crotone was directly promoted to the top flight by July 2020. It had taken the delivery boy just five years to get himself to Serie A from Eccellenza.

Following his brother, Walter Junior had come to Italy with his wife and children in 2011 to find work — a modest story that most immigrants can identify with. However, his brother returned home after a month. A decade on, Junior is set for the UEFA Champions League.

The boy obviously had talent. Why didn’t a Brazilian club recognise it? Well, at youth level, Messias had played at Cruzeiro but failed to make the grade, and therefore abandoned his footballing dream to take care of his family — a noble cause indeed.

Perhaps it’s a clichè rags to riches story of a struggling blue-collar worker that becomes a footballing millionaire. I like it. We’ve seen other heartwarming stories in Italian football as well.

Senegalese midfielder, Mamadou Coulibaly — now with Salernitana — was once a homeless refugee who was noticed while kicking a ball with friends in Pescara. While these are uncommon tales, they’re necessary in a world full to the brim with doomsday media narratives.

The Junior Messias story is a beacon of hope. My favourite Messias goal from 2020/21 was that sublime ‘pallonetto’ where he chipped Luigi Sepe from the edge of the box.

Apart from being a direct threat in front of goal, Stefano Pioli can slot the speedster in behind to operate as a second striker, or even out wide — surely an improvement on Alexis Saelemaekers or Samu Castillejo.

After a successful partnership at Crotone with Simy, Messias will now line up alongside some of the greatest names in contemporary football. Zlatan Ibrahimović, Olivier Giroud and Franck Kessié will all inspire the playmaker to elevate his game — a ‘scalata’ (ascent) to another level in which the Brazilian could never have imagined at Casale, Gozzano or even last term.

From the simplicity of a kick-about with the Peruvian community of Torino, to finding himself following in the footsteps of Serginho, Leonardo, Ronaldinho, Pato, Robinho, Kaka, Thiago Silva and Cafu — these are the Brazilian greats that have worn the Diavolo shirt.

No longer entrenched in relegation battles and now set to compete for the Scudetto and Champions League, Junior Messias is a man on a mission that prays to God, yet has to wear the shirt of the Devil. Quite the juxtaposition.

I’m sure the new Milan attacking midfielder can overcome that demon to show the world that absolutely anything is possible when hard work and perseverance are applied.

And that would certainly be one hell of a heavenly scalata indeed.

Image: ACMilan.com