Mateo Retegui is the leading scorer in Serie A this season with 11 goals
With upcoming holidays in mind and a new season about to start, 4 August 2024 was meant to be a tranquil summer's day for Atalanta fans.
Their club, fresh from winning the Europa League, were playing a pre-season friendly at Parma. Expectation was in the air, but serenity too. Hot temperatures, it being a Sunday and the limited distance – Bergamo only lies 100 miles north-west of Parma – had attracted a few hundred Nerazzurri fans to Stadio Tardini.
During the match, as he tried to control the ball, striker Gianluca Scamacca tore his left knee anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Incredulity and despair in the stands, as well as an operation and six months out of action for the player, were the result.
A blow for him – and his team – just 10 days before the Uefa Super Cup final against Real Madrid in Warsaw.
Three days later, Atalanta announced the signing of Genoa and Italy striker Mateo Retegui for 25m euros.
Atalanta went all-in for a rough diamond, discovered by Italian football in an unexpected way.
At the start of 2023, in the country that once fielded strikers like Filippo Inzaghi and Christian Vieri, Luca Toni and Vincenzo Montella, the Azzurri had been suffering for years from the lack of a proper centre-forward.
Just how big a feat had it been that Roberto Mancini's Italy had won Euro 2020 with Ciro Immobile and Andrea Belotti up front?
As Retegui's name started circulating that March, most fans and experts turned up their noses.
Did Italy really need an unknown, Argentina-born striker, whose father and sister won Olympic medals in field hockey? Who had never been considered by Argentina and whose great-grandfathers were from Liguria and Sicily?
Mancini was adamant and called him up for both Euro 2024 qualifiers against England and Malta. There had barely been enough time to even figure out who Retegui was and he had already scored in both games.
"Mateo can score, and that's not peanuts," former Italy head coach Mancini said at the time. "He is a classical centre-forward – he reminds me of Gabriel Batistuta when he arrived in Italy.
"He needs time though – he still has plenty to learn. Playing in Serie A would do him good. He would become stronger, learn the language and communicate better with his team-mates."
Atalanta manager Gian Piero Gasperini (right) has helped Retegui flourish
Despite rumours of a potential move to Inter Milan, it was Genoa who snapped Retegui up from Boca Juniors in July 2023 for 15m euros.
His first season in Italy brought seven goals in 29 Serie A games, but he spent three months out injured and was required to do a lot of pressing by manager Alberto Gilardino.
Retegui's qualities were evident, though – he was extremely comfortable in the penalty area and always looking to shoot.
In August 2024 another attentive manager saw that something special in him: Gian Piero Gasperini.
The Atalanta boss is known for his strong personality, which led to disputes with players such as Alejandro Gomez, Timothy Castagne and Pierluigi Gollini, but his ability to develop players is undisputed.
Retegui, who blossomed in Bergamo, is the last to have taken advantage of this.
He has scored 11 goals in his first 12 Serie A games for Atalanta – one goal every 71 minutes. Atalanta are second in the table and boast the league's best attack, much of that down to Retegui – and Gasperini of course.
"I love the way he [Gasperini] wants us to play – we all push forward, up into the pitch, and create a lot of chances," Retegui said in September.
"I spoke a lot with the manager and his staff. They also showed me videos of what they expect from me. It’s an ideal situation for me – they want the best of me and they know how to get it. And I am really eager to learn."
Strong in the air, Retegui has refined his sharpness inside the box, as well as his capacity to link up with team-mates.
He often drops out of the penalty area, deep into midfield, plays with his back to goal and offers a one-two pass before running deep into space.
This allows others – especially Ademola Lookman – to start out wide and enter the penalty area with speed. The Nigeria winger has six goals this season.
Italy manager Luciano Spalletti had closely followed Retegui's development, saying after their woeful Euro 2024 campaign that a "necessary generational change" had started.
Retegui, who brings the same qualities to his national team, is a pivotal figure of it.
On target against Israel and Belgium in the Nations League, he has already helped his country reach the quarter-finals and a seeded spot in the next World Cup qualifying group.
Spalletti has first set his sights on qualifying – no-one in Italy dares think of a third drama after France 2018 and Qatar 2022 – and then on being successful at the 2026 World Cup.
Meanwhile, Gasperini's eyes are on a Scudetto with Atalanta. A tough ask, but with with Retegui – the striker Italian football has longed for – firing in goals, neither of them need to hide their ambitions.
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