Normally, a sixteen-year-old rookie like Ethan Cross would struggle to earn his teammates’ trust so quickly.
But after that display of almost magical short passing, capped by breaking legendary midfielder Rui Costa’s training record, everyone had recalibrated.
The kid wasn’t just a prospect.
He was a weapon.
When the reserves weathered the starters’ opening storm, they instinctively turned their attack toward Ethan.
They fed him the ball again and again.
And he delivered.
Playing as a central midfielder, he took the ball without hesitation, moved it fast, and split lines with clean, decisive passes.
No wasted touches.
No doubt.
In the 12th minute, the reserves worked the ball through midfield.
A teammate rolled it to Ethan.
Without a hint of warning, he struck it first-time.
A forward ball, straight through the heart of the starters’ defense.
The pass cut like a blade.
Reserve striker Alberto Gilardino read it perfectly, broke the offside trap, collected the ball in stride, and slid a finish into the far corner.
1–0.
The reserves had struck first.
“Beautiful!
That pass was beautiful!”
“This kid Ethan really has something!”
Montella was practically glowing.
Beside him, Daniele Pradè clapped hard.
This was it.
Exactly this.
The final ball Fiorentina had been missing.
Gilardino ran straight to Ethan, grinning.
“Ethan, that pass was gorgeous.”
“A through ball like that is top Serie A quality.”
A veteran of Italy’s 2006 World Cup triumph, Gilardino had been one of the country’s finest homegrown strikers.
He’d spent three and a half seasons with Fiorentina from 2008 to 2012.
After a disappointing half-season in the Chinese Super League, he’d returned to the Viola for a second stint.
His pace and explosiveness were gone.
The club saw him as depth behind Mario Gómez, a bench option to reinforce the forward line.
His movement and finishing were still there.
But to get clear chances, he needed a midfield that could feed him.
Ethan’s stunning pass was exactly the service Gilardino craved.
It lifted his spirits instantly.
The starters were just as stunned.
Mario Gómez felt it most.
Even when Borja Valero had been on the pitch in the first half of the season, a through ball as clean and decisive as Ethan’s was rare.
That kind of killer pass demanded pinpoint short-passing technique and an instinctive read of a teammate’s run.
It wasn’t easy to produce.
Gómez studied Ethan.
The kid’s passing was genuinely frightening.
If he had that kind of service behind him, his scoring chances would skyrocket.
A reserves lead in an intra-squad match hadn’t happened in a long time.
Ethan’s arrival had clearly transformed the second-string attack.
Center-back partners Gonzalo Rodríguez and Stefan Savić exchanged a look.
Time to get serious.
They weren’t about to let a sixteen-year-old school them.
But as the match wore on, Ethan’s brilliance only continued.
In the 19th minute, he struck again from midfield.
This time the beneficiary wasn’t Gilardino.
It was the speedster on the wing, Mohamed Salah.
Ethan’s perfectly weighted pass not only sprung Salah into space down the flank, it let him use his technique and pace to threaten the starters’ goal directly.
Over the next few minutes, Ethan fed Salah several more sharp balls.
The reserves’ wide attack became the brightest feature of the match.
“Rodríguez and Savić tightened up on Gilardino and limited his movement, so Ethan immediately shifted the attack to the wing and linked up with Salah,” Montella noted.
“This kid reads the game fast.”
Montella couldn’t stop praising him.
This young talent had real football intelligence.
He played with his brain.
He could be relied on.
“Montella, you’re falling for this kid more by the minute,” Daniele teased.
As Salah grew more active on the flank, the pressure on the starters’ defense multiplied.
In the 49th minute, Ethan produced another moment of magic.
He carried the ball to the edge of the box, then suddenly slipped a pass to the left.
The ball cut through the gap between right-back Marcos Alonso and Savić, curling into the heart of the penalty area.
At first, it looked like he’d overhit it.
Then Salah angled his run from the wing, cut inside, met the ball perfectly, and buried it.
Everyone understood.
Ethan’s angled through ball had been weighted with perfect anticipation, letting Salah’s speed explode at the right instant.
2–0.
No one had expected the reserves to go two goals up on the starters.
It was only a training match, but Salah was elated.
He sprinted toward Ethan, laughing, to celebrate.
Since his transfer to Chelsea, the Egyptian star had spent most of his time on the bench.
His Premier League experience had been miserable.
He hadn’t felt this free on a pitch in a long time.
Ethan’s exquisite passes, one after another, had struck a nerve every single time.
A feeling settled over him.
Landing on loan at Fiorentina, meeting a passing genius like Ethan, felt like something arranged by fate.
Was his career finally about to turn?
Montella and Daniele stared at each other, still processing the quality of Ethan’s last through ball.
Then they laughed, shaking their heads in disbelief.
“Daniele, are you sure we didn’t pay a single euro in loan fees for this kid?”
Daniele knew exactly what Montella meant.
He was holding back a grin himself.
“I had no idea Liverpool would be this generous.
Loaning us a talent like this for free.”
“Our friends at Liverpool are far too kind.”