Here at FourFourTwo, we're more than aware that the honour of lifting the Champions League trophy doesn't come around any ol' day of the week. Football's most famous names have lifted the trophy... and they've now been joined by the motley crew who create your favourite football magazine and website. Apart from yours truly (not pictured!), those lucky enough to hold the famous Coppa were Lucy Glover (art director), Richard Cann (Deputy Editor), Paul Hansford (Editor), Anthony Macri (infamous blogger) and Jon "I'm from Swindon" Ritson.

In a hush-hush low-key mission, the 1994 trophy won by AC Milan is currently in Australia and FourFourTwo was invited exclusively by Australia's AC Milan Youth Academy to get up close and personal. And even more impressively, there wasn't a security guard in site...

UEFA award any club who has manage to win Europe's most prestigious club competition five times by giving the trophy to them permanently; which is exactly what happened in 1994 when AC Milan beat Barcelona in an astonishing 4-0 victory.

Italy and AC Milan legend Daniele Massaro - who scored two of the four goals in that historical match was the man to bring the trophy to Australia. He is currently also on hand to run Sydney's elite young players through their paces at the Academy's headquarters at Olympic Park.

The FDA AC Milan Academy squad train under the tuition of Andrea Icardi who has many years experience training the Milan's Italian youth teams and who graduated as a coach at the prestigious Coverciano Coach Education centre in Florence.

Yesterday, he told us he was impressed with the natural ability and adaptability of Australians and said the key to developing top players isensuring good habits are instilled into youngsters.

“You look to get the ideas and the habits into their heads at eight and nine as by 15 and 16 it is really too late,” he said.

While Massaro's playing days may be over, the sight of him juggling the ball on his shins and running rings round the youngsters shows that he is yet to lose the magic.

The Milan Academy monitors player development in key areas of their game. The performance data is submitted to a central database in Italy for assessment and comparison with the data of elite players in AC Milan Academies around the world.

One of the key fundamentals to the Milan approach is developing players who are comfortable with the football, not afraid of it.

Further information about the AC Milan Academy in Sydney can be obtained at www.footballdevelopment.com.au and examples of AC Milan Youth coaching can be found at 442Tube.