Without cancer, Francesco Acerbi once said, he would have retired years ago. Perhaps at 28, which would have meant his career ended in 2016. Instead, here is in 2025, preparing for his second Champions League final, maybe forever going to be the last footballer born in the 1980s to play in one. Or one of the last, anyway, given that Yann Sommer, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Marko Arnautovic all came into this world when the Berlin Wall was still intact and Matteo Darmian before the 1990s arrived.