Michael Kayode: From Juventus Cast-Off to Premier League Star
Michael Kayode leans back, thinks for a second, and offers a theory that will make a few Italian coaches wince.
“The training is much tougher in Italy,” he says. “Here you train 4-5 times a week, then you rest a lot more. Perhaps this is why people think English football has a higher tempo…”
It sounds upside down. Less training, higher tempo. Yet for the 21-year-old right-back, now a fixture at Brentford and with Italy Under-21s, the logic is simple: fresher legs, fresher minds, faster football.
From Juventus cast-off to Premier League mainstay
Kayode’s route to the Premier League has not been the golden staircase many imagine when they hear “Juventus academy.” He passed through both Juventus and Fiorentina’s youth systems before Brentford paid €18m to bring him to west London in January 2025.
That price tag raised eyebrows at the time. It doesn’t now.
He has already made 41 appearances for the Bees this season, chipping in with a goal and two assists from right-back. More importantly, he has become part of the furniture, trusted in one of the most physically demanding leagues in the world.
For a player once told he wasn’t wanted back at Juventus, every minute in the Premier League carries an edge.
“I might seem crazy, but I don’t regret it at all, because the fact Juve dumped me did give me the strength to reach this level,” he reflected on Chiamarsi Bomber. In that one line you hear the hinge of his career creak: rejection turning into fuel.
He remembers the numbers clearly. “We were around 60 kids in that group and only 2-3 now play at professional level.” The odds were brutal. The exit door even more so.
The Gozzano education
When Juventus decided not to bring him back and he went on loan to Gozzano, it could have broken him. Instead, it hardened him.
“Gozzano gave me the chance at age 16 to play against older opponents, Serie D is very different to a youth team,” he said.
Serie D is unforgiving. No frills, no safety net, no time for reputation. For a teenager, it is a crash course in adult football: heavier challenges, quicker decisions, a different kind of pressure. Kayode embraced it.
That spell, away from the glamour of big-club academies, shaped the defender who now thunders up and down the right flank at Hill Dickinson Stadium and across the Premier League.
Why England feels faster
Ask most observers why English football looks faster and they will point to the crowd, the culture, the weather, the refereeing. Kayode goes straight to the training ground.
“The training is much tougher in Italy, and you get far fewer days off,” he explained. “Here you train 4-5 times a week, then you rest a lot more.”
The payoff arrives on matchday.
“Perhaps this is why people think English football has a higher tempo, because you only train as much as you need to, then feel fresh both physically and mentally once you play the game.”
The difference is not just physical. It is personal.
“It gives you more time to spend with your loved ones,” he added. For a young player abroad, that balance matters. Less grind, more recovery, more life outside the training ground. When the whistle blows, the energy is there.
The content of those sessions has changed too.
“Besides, the training sessions are almost all 11 against 11, we rarely spend that much time focusing on tactics. It’s about taking men on.”
That line cuts to the heart of his adjustment. In England, the game leans into chaos, duels, and instinct. In Italy, he grew up under a different gospel.
Fiorentina, Italiano and a tactical education
Before Brentford, before the Premier League, there was Fiorentina and a coach who left a mark.
“I loved being at Fiorentina, Alberto Aquilani was a great coach, both tactically and as a person,” Kayode said. Those Primavera years under Aquilani gave him structure, detail, and a clear sense of how to read the game.
Then came Vincenzo Italiano and a first taste of the senior environment.
“Italiano called me into the senior squad and his mentality is incredible, he always wants you focused.”
That demand for concentration, for constant alertness, stands in sharp contrast to the more free-flowing, duel-heavy training he now experiences in England. Between Aquilani’s tactical schooling and Italiano’s relentless standards, Kayode built a foundation that allows him to thrive in the Premier League’s open spaces.
Italian rigour, English rhythm. The combination is serving him well.
No regrets, only momentum
What might have been a sobering career detour – being “dumped” by Juventus, as he bluntly puts it – now looks like the making of him. From Serie D with Gozzano to regular football with Brentford and a key role for Italy Under-21s, Kayode has turned each setback into a stepping stone.
He does not dwell on the club that let him go. He talks instead about the chance Gozzano gave him, the education at Fiorentina, the mentality of Italiano, the trust of Brentford, the freshness of English training, the freedom to attack his man.
At 21, with 41 Premier League appearances already banked and a clear-eyed view of what it took to get here, the question is no longer whether Juventus were right.
It is how far this version of Michael Kayode can go.
