As Andreas Engelmark goes back through his old text messages, he comes across one he sent to Dejan Kulusevski, then just 15, as he departed Sweden for Italy.
'I said something like, "stay humble, keep working and you are going to go far," Engelmark, a youth coach and technical director at Stockholm-based club IF Brommapojkarna, tells Sportsmail after hearing news Kulusevski had completed his medical at Juventus.
Engelmark admits that he knew the teenager was on the move in January following a surprise Boxing Day visit. Back for Christmas staying with family, Kulusevski went along to a training session that was put on and was all smiles as he prepared to put pen to paper in Turin.
'We keep in touch and he told me he was going to sign,' he said. 'Not what club, he wanted to keep that a surprise.
'I am going to wait until it all settles and we will text or talk - but young people only want to text nowadays, not speak on the phone!'
When Engelmark and the rest of the coaching staff at Brommapojkarna saw the teenager head west to Italy, there were some of the opinion that he was making a 'mistake'.
Kulusevski could not speak the language, he had little understanding of the culture and yet still felt ready to leave Sweden to further his career. Having sealed a £30million switch to join Cristiano Ronaldo and Co at Juventus on Thursday, it only went further to vindicate his own decision-making four years ago.
The move makes him the second most expensive Swedish player ever after Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who takes top spot for his move from Inter Milan to Barcelona in 2009.
Brommapojkarna has one of the finest youth academies in Europe and has seen players like Bojan Djordjic impress enough in the youth ranks to seal a move to Manchester United in years gone by. But even by their standards, this is a 'unique' moment for all involved.
Second in the assist charts in Serie A this season with seven - only behind Lazio's Luis Alberto - and watched regularly by scouts from United and Inter Milan, Kulusevski's development has accelerated at a phenomenal speed since joining Parma on loan from Atalanta in the summer.
Thriving on the right of a front three containing ex-Cardiff striker Andreas Cornelius and former Arsenal wide man Gervinho, the teenager appears ready made for the biggest of stages. But while he is now physically commanding as well as technically savvy, Engelmark, who began coaching him at the age of 12, admits this has not always been the case.
'Physically he wasn't that built [aged 12] but technically he was very good and his game awareness was good. The thing that he developed was that physicality. In that last 18 months before leaving for Italy he became a young man and he was very, very strong when he left.'
Prior to this season, Kulusevski was not a name on the lips of many fans outside Italy and Sweden. His rise appears rapid, almost overnight, but those who have seen him close up have known for some time the level of talent in front of them.
'Versatility' is the key word Engelmark continues to come back to. Kulusevski plays on the right of a front three for Parma but is regularly deployed in a 4-4-2 for the Swedish national team. For his old coach, playing as a central striker, a No 10 or the right of a midfield three, which is a system Juventus typically adopt, would be natural for him.
And so with that in mind, talk turns to those he resembles, those he mirrors his own game on.
'I do think he has similarities to (Arjen) Robben but at the same time he could play more inside [than Robben], like an attacking midfielder,' Engelmark says.
'For me, he is similar to Robben in terms of the dribbling, but I also feel he has similarities with Sergej Milinkovic-Savic. A mixture of those guys. In that way he is a bit unique.
'I even saw someone compare him to Kevin De Bruyne. That is a big compliment for Dejan because De Bruyne is one of the best.'
Kulusevski has always been ahead of the curve - he belonged to the age group above his own, known as Bromma 99, coached by Engelmark, while at the club - and so his big-money move to Juventus at the age of 19 will not surprise everyone back in Sweden.
As the conversation switches from how he will work under a tactician like Maurizio Sarri to his recent form with Parma, talk quickly returns to the development of his game.
Having started out as a direct, and at times selfish player, Kulusevski now operates as a vital part of a team, as he showed in his unselfish assist for Gervinho to score the winning goal in a pre-winter break win over Napoli in Naples.
'He was, and still is, a very good dribbler, but in the beginning he was, more or less, only dribbling so that was the first step for me to try to help him work more with his team-mates and his combination play,' Engelmark explains.
'It was the first step to work with him to help his team-mates and also the other way around. Also, when you are that young, a lot of guys don't want to defend too much, so that was the second step, working with the counter-press, simple stuff like that.
'The thing with him is that he is always ready to learn, always ready to take the next step and I think that was the biggest take when I started working with him. He was a quick learner and we could start adding more attributes to his game.
'I think the mindset he has, he believes in himself a lot but he is also humble enough to keep learning.'
Heading back to Parma to see out the season will now bring with it a different kind of pressure than before. Plenty in Turin will follow every move, every goal, every injury and will scrutinise his performances to a forensic level. That is the pressure a move like this brings, but Kulusevski is not lacking in self-confidence to handle it all, insists Engelmark.
'I cannot see him getting too cocky,' he said. 'He will just try to improve and prove to people he should be at this level. He has had a terrific mindset and he has shown now he can become a world class player.'
