Teenager Cissè Steals the Show as Amorim's Milan Open With a Win in Turin
AC Milan opened their Serie A season with a 2-1 win away at Torino on August 23, and the player everyone was talking about afterwards was not one of their big-money summer signings. It was a 19-year-old who had played 14 minutes of top-flight football before kick-off.
Alphadjo Cissè scored on his debut, was named the match's MVP, and upstaged every euro Milan spent in the transfer window — all on a Sunday evening in Turin.
Rúben Amorim, taking charge of his first competitive game as Milan manager, saw his side fall behind before turning it around. Goals from Cissè in the 64th minute and Adrien Rabiot secured the three points against a Torino side managed by former Milan defender Ignazio Abate. Amorim's substitutes proved decisive in swinging the match Milan's way, according to Yahoo Sports and ESPN match coverage.
Cissè's story is the kind football thrives on. Born in Treviso, just north of Venice, to Guinean parents, he signed for Milan from Verona in February 2026 but spent the rest of last season on loan at Catanzaro in Serie B, Italy's second tier. He scored six goals in 22 games there before a thigh injury cut his campaign in half. Before that loan, his entire Serie A experience consisted of three substitute appearances for Verona — a combined 14 minutes.
Yet Amorim handed him a start on opening weekend, and the teenager responded by taking the first shot of the game inside 75 seconds. The Guardian reports that Cissè lived up to the billing, outshining the new arrivals Milan invested heavily in this summer.
And those arrivals cost plenty. Milan spent a club-record €74m on striker Gonçalo Ramos from Paris Saint-Germain, €50m on midfielder Diego Moreira from Strasbourg, and €30m on defender Mario Gila from Lazio. None of them made the headlines on matchday one. Cissè did, earning the first MVP award of the 2026/27 Serie A season, per AC Milan's official website.
The backdrop to Amorim's appointment is straightforward. Milan finished fifth last season under Massimiliano Allegri — not disastrous, but not where a club of Milan's ambition wants to be. Amorim has said his goal is to win the Scudetto, the Italian league title, while acknowledging it may take time.
His summer suggested the club is willing to give him the tools. A 4-2 pre-season win over Manchester United in Wrocław on August 15 offered a glimpse of what this team can do going forward.
Still, opening-day results are opening-day results. Amorim will know that a tough away fixture navigated with three points and a teenager announcing himself on the big stage is exactly the start he would have chosen.
For Milan fans, the promise is not just in the scoreline. It is in a 19-year-old who barely had a senior career a year ago, standing in the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino and taking the game to the opposition before the first minute was up.
