At just 18 years of age, Gianluigi Donnarumma had already grown sadly accustomed to dealing with the fury of AC Milan's frustrated fans but, on the evening of December 13, he could take no more.
As he ran towards his goal ahead of a Coppa Italia clash with Verona at San Siro, the goalkeeper looked up towards the Curva Sud and saw a banner that stopped him dead in his tracks.
Milan captain Leonardo Bonucci did his best to comfort his teenage team-mate but Donnarumma was unable to hold back the tears.
He got through the game, keeping a clean sheet in the process, but many wondered afterwards how he could possibly get through the season in a climate of such open hostility.
Donnarumma was a childhood Milan fan, the club's most promising academy product since Paolo Maldini, yet he was being vilified by his own club's supporters.
Indeed, it wasn't Donnarumma who had accused Milan of bullying him into signing a contract extension through "moral violence" - that was the work of his agent, Mino Raiola, a man who still openly admits that he would like to see his client leave San Siro.
Donnarumma, for his part, has always insisted that he wants to remain at the club that gave him his professional debut at 16, and re-signed his brother Antonio last summer.
He was well aware that his sibling's return was widely regarded as a barely concealed reward for him renewing his contract until 2021 on July 11, after refusing to do so just over a month earlier.
However, he felt - or at least hoped - that all had been forgiven when he finally committed his future to the club and made a point of thanking the fans for the warm reception he received in his first game at San Siro after the conclusion of one of the longest-running transfer sagas of the summer.
I didn't expect it, but I am happy at the way they greeted me and promise I will always give everything for this jersey," he said after the Europa League qualifier against Craiova. "They know I am Milan's first fan.
"For me, it is as if nothing happened and I am proud to wear the Milan shirt."
