100 Up: Gianluigi Donnarumma Reaches Major Serie A Milestone Just After Turning 19 Years Old

AC Milan youngster Gianluigi Donnarumma played the 100th league game of his career when he kept a clean sheet in a 0-0 draw against Serie A title chasers Napoli

AC Milan youngster Gianluigi Donnarumma played the 100th league game of his career when he kept a clean sheet in a 0-0 draw against Serie A title chasers Napoli on Sunday.

Remarkably, Donnarumma is still only a teenager and will remain so until early next year. He celebrated his 19th birthday in February and yet this is already his third season as Milan's number one.

100 - Gianluigi Donnarumma (19 years, 49 days) are playing today his 100th Serie A appearance. Mauture. #MilanNapoli pic.twitter.com/VR5f1JoEhx

— OptaPaolo (@OptaPaolo) April 15, 2018

The player tipped to replace namesake Gianluigi Buffon as number one for the Italian national team hasn't missed a Serie A game all season and his experience for someone so young is vast.

Wearing the number 99 shirt, the year of his birth, Donnarumma was just 16 when he was installed as Milan number one in October 2015. His Serie A debut against Sassuolo was also the very first competitive senior game of his career and he became the second youngest goalkeeper to start a game in the history of Italian football in the process.

Claudio Villa/GettyImages

From there, Donnarumma didn't miss a game in Serie A and by the end of the season Milan had bid farewell to the much more experienced Diego Lopez, letting the former Real Madrid stopper return to Spain to join Espanyol.

Donnarumma later made his international senior international debut for Italy in September 2016. He had already been the youngest ever player to represent Italy at Under-21 level earlier that year and was the youngest called up to the full side since 1911 when then Azzurricoach Gian Piero Ventura made the call.

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He was the youngest goalkeeper ever to play for Italy when he made his debut that month, a half-time substitute for Buffon in a friendly against France, and was later the country's youngest ever starting goalkeeper shortly after his 18th birthday the following year.

Donnarumma has heavily linked with a move away from Milan last summer when the club appeared to concede defeat in trying to tie him down to a new contract. But a surprise U-turn mere weeks later saw the teenager pen a deal to 2021 instead.

For now, he's a Milan player, but if Donnarumma continues his incredible development he could soon be aiming higher. And with an agent like Mino Raiola in his corner, it's not a conversation that will be allowed to be forgotten.