“I don’t want to seem exaggerated”: the DT of Italy compared Retegui with a historical figure of the Argentine team

Mateo Retegui is the top scorer in the Professional League with 6 goals (Photo: @catigreoficial)

Mateo Retegui’s call to the Italy team gave another aspect to this Thursday’s match against England at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium for the first matchday of group C for qualification for Euro 2024. The striker was tested as a starter in the last training sessions and, recently, their coach Roberto Mancini flattered the surprise of the roster with a tremendous comparison with one of the old glories of the Argentine team.

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“I don’t want to seem exaggerated, but it reminds me a bit of (Gabriel) Batistuta when he arrived in Italy…”, he launched at the press conference prior to the duel against the Las Tres Rosas team. That striker, who left behind his steps at Newell’s, River Plate and Boca Juniors, shone his talent at Fiorentina, where he became an idol for the fans in the seven seasons in which he wore that shirt and, internationally, reached to be the top scorer for the Albiceleste until he was surpassed by Lionel Messi.

The parallelism with the protagonist is not accidental either because Mancini closely observed the performances of the Bati in Florence. The DT, who knew how to function as an offensive midfielder, came to wear the shirts of Sampdoria and Lazio during the Argentine’s stay at Calcio, with whom he came to face on a handful of occasions.

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Both Batistuta and Retegui share a detail in common, since Chapita is on the radar of Italian football. Inter is one of the latest teams to join the certification, which already includes Milan, Bayern Munich, Manchester United and Atlético de Madrid. Despite the hopes placed in the young striker from Tigre, Mancini opted for caution to squeeze the best skills out of him: “It is not easy to come from Argentina, and play in Italy, not for a club, but for the national team.”

“First of all, it will take him some time to get to know his peers, but he is not only an educated boy, he is also young, intelligent. And he’s also a good center forward: he won’t take long. We have a lot of faith in him, but we have to give him a little time”, he concluded about the 23-year-old striker. Similarly, the last scorer in the Professional League received praise from Marco Verratti after his first practices with the team: “We were only able to train with him for two days, but he gave us a very good impression. He is physically there, he really wants to show, he is going to give us a great hand ”.

Mateo Retegui in the practice of the Italian team (REUTERS / Jennifer Lorenzini)

On the other hand, the technical director referred to the latent need to leave behind the elimination in the playoffs of the last World Cup to face the future of the Nazionale. One of the goals will be to defend the title of the last European Championship won at Wembley against England. The end of that road will turn around to start the action in the area also made up of Ukraine, North Macedonia and Malta. The first two will advance to the appointment.

It may interest you: Inter’s seductive offer to stay with Mateo Retegui: the “Lautaro Martínez path” as a hook

“We went from great emotion to great disappointment: football is like life, sometimes cruel, and things happen that you don’t deserve. We also made mistakes, but it didn’t all happen because we were less good. Now we are starting again, with the same objectives”, he pointed out about the peaks of his cycle at the helm of the Azzurra, which began in May 2018. He then added: “We want to return to the same level as when we won the Eurocup and that depends on us and the desire that we put into it ”.

Looking to the future, he was consulted about next June’s crossing against Spain for the Nations League semifinals: “We must start well in the qualifying phase, then try to win the Nations League and then go to the Eurocup to confirm ourselves. We have to go back to being who we were, entertain, win to reproduce the magic of the Eurocup. And it is not said that we cannot repeat the same situation”.

Keep reading:

The Italian teams that are looking for Mateo Retegui and how he would be blocked for the Argentine team The seductive offer from Inter to stay with Mateo Retegui: the “Lautaro Martínez path” as a hook The “chat” that is due with Riquelme, what would he say to Ibarra and why he will not go to the Villarreal celebration: 10 phrases from Battaglia The contradictory statements of Jhon Teherán after losing by KO with Maravilla Martínez: he denounced an arrangement of the fight and then backed down

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