Mateo Retegui

The Argentine-born striker making headlines for Italy

- Joel Richards

A goal against England on his international debut. Another goal in his second outing against Malta. Two goals in his first two international appearances in March for Italy catapulted 23-yearold Mateo Retegui into the limelight.

“We were looking for a goalscorer,” said Roberto Mancini, “and we have found one.” The Azzurri coach went even further in his praise. “He reminds me of [Gabriel] Batistuta when he first came to Italy.”

Retegui may be a classic number nine like “Batigol”, which is exactly the type of player that Italy have been struggling to find, yet Mancini’s decision to call up the striker was a gamble and something straight out of left field.

“My dad called me after training to tell me he had important news. I never imagined it would be a call from Mancini,” admitted Retegui.

He has never played in Italy. He is the first player in the Azzurri’s history to score his first goal while not playing for a European side. The week before he found space inside the area at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona to fire past Jordan Pickford, he was lining up for Tigre against Arsenal de Sarandi in front of a crowd of fewer than 1,000 in the Argentine first division.