We all need a superhero. You can be a child, a teenager, or a seasoned man, but when you see the ball rolling, everything resets.
That’s football, beautiful, where a goal changes your day and a win changes your week. Paulo truly looked like Superman with the cape that street artist Drugi created in Garbatella, near Piazzale Damiano Sauli.
He soared above Inter, oblivious to Bastoni’s man-marking, chasing Dimarco down the flank and dishing balls into Martinez’s box that were as good as a couple of late-summer hailstorms that recently hit our city.
Never—writes Stefano Carina in ‘Il Messaggero’—in his time with the Giallorossi had Paulo played so much in the first five matchdays of the season (plus the 90 minutes in the Champions League against Fenerbahçe): a full 407 of the 450 available, or 90.4%.
He hasn’t had this consistency in ten years, since 2016-17, the season in which he won the Scudetto.
Back then, he scored more (he’s currently without a goal for eight months), today he enjoys setting up Malen for goal.
With a side note: many will have noticed his low-slung shot in the first half against Inter. It was a sign. He hadn’t tried it for a while, entrenching himself in the comfort zone of the turn-of-the-ball.
