And indeed: Mateo Retegui scored. On the debut against England, all eyes on him. It didn’t do any good, it was just a flash in Naples’ night. Italy lost the top game at the start of qualifying for the European Championship 1:2 (0:2) – quite deservedly, one has to say. “Little Italy,” headlined the newspaper The Republic, a headline that only unfolds its beautiful, ambiguous impact when it is echoed. But what should the Italians look up to if not this young center forward from distant Argentina – “from the end of the world”, to paraphrase another Argentine? This is how Jorge Mario Bergoglio introduced himself to the church people when he became Pope Francis.
Mateo Retegui, 23, from Boca Juniors, on loan to Tigre, is now the new nine of the Azzurri. The hopeful savior of the fatherland. In his case, it is great-grandfatherland.
Angelo Di Marco from Canicattì in Sicily emigrated to Argentina a long time ago, and his great-grandson doesn’t speak a word of Italian. It’s not even certain if Retegui was ever in Italy prior to his call-up to the Italy national team. But it’s not that important, he should kindly wipe away the desperation of the Italians in that position that used to be well occupied. From Luca Toni, for example, from Christian Vieri, from the missing Gianluca Vialli, to name just three from the recent past.
Italy doesn’t score anymore, it’s a shame. And that’s not just because of the indisposition or the slump in performance of Ciro Immobile, Andrea Belotti, Giacomo Raspadori and Gianluca Scamacca. Because, well, this series isn’t exactly gala either. Great strikers just don’t grow up in Italy anymore. Serie A clubs would rather bring in mediocre staff and past glories from abroad than rely on their own youth. The problem has been identified. New rules are also being discussed at the association: the clubs should be forced to take more young people from their academies into the first team. Once again, there is talk of the need for a cultural change. As a rule, this means above all: It takes a long time, is complicated, and success is uncertain.
So stood Roberto Mancini, the Technical Commissioner, recently even on the verge of reinstalling the eternal self-squandering talent Mario Balotelli in the national team on the nine. He now plays at FC Sion, bottom of the table in the Swiss Super League. That’s how desperate the European champions were after missing the World Cup in Qatar.
The game Udinese against Milan as a symbol of short-sighted personnel policy
Mancini doesn’t like to hear the murmur of the great Italian club football either: Three Serie A legations are in the quarter-finals of the current Champions League, a truly unexpected luck. But Mancini quickly woke everyone up from their fairy tale sleep. Before the game against England, he explained to the Italians that there were hardly any players in these teams that he could muster, that the Italian clubs as a whole did not help him with their short-sighted personnel policies. The championship match between Udinese and Milan on March 18 of this year is considered a scandalous symbolic case that is often passed around. There were three Italians in the starting line-up – three out of 22.
And so Mancini is also looking for unorthodox solutions and tests players who are rarely or never used in their clubs. For example, Simone Pafundi from Udinese, 17 years old, received a call. The midfielder is considered a great talent, so big that he deserves the national team – only he hardly ever plays in his own club. Mancini has already tested ninety footballers, in 57 international matches, a memorable record, an unmistakable sign of the coach’s impotence.
Retegui couldn’t decide between hockey and football for a long time
He came to Mateo Retegui thanks to a tip from Juan Sebastián Verón, an old friend of Calcio, ex-Sampdoria, Parma, Lazio and Inter player and now sporting director at Estudiantes. Verón, it can be assumed, had a lot to explain.
At best, international scouts, niche experts and agents had heard of Retegui in Europe. He is the son of the former Argentina national field hockey coach. All the Retegui family used to play hockey. Mateo couldn’t decide for a long time whether he wanted to run after the big leather ball or the small plastic ball. River Plate brought him into their own youth but dropped him, so he returned to hockey at 14. A scout from Boca Juniors spotted him on the beach playing sand with friends. This is how he came to the Association of Italian Emigrants. However, he has always lent Retegui out in recent years.
He made his breakthrough at Club Atlético Tigre from Victoria, a small town in the Greater Buenos Aires area: 25 goals in 34 games, that’s quite an impressive rate. But what is it worth, translated into European categories?
On his arrival in Italy, Mancini charged him with an advance, which he should have been spared. “I don’t want to exaggerate,” said the coach, “but Retegui reminds me of the early Batistuta.” In “Batigol” then, the great Gabriel Omar Batistuta – it’s a good thing that Mancini didn’t want to exaggerate. The Italian newspapers were amused by the selection. They called Retegui “Bomberino”. A sheet found: After all, it has the goal in its name: “Rete-gui” – net is the Italian word for gate. In Coverciano, the training center of the Azzurri near Florence, Retegui received tactical private lessons, a quick introduction to calcio. They only had three days.
He is the 51st “oriundo” in the history of calcio – they have always been controversial
But Mancini called Retegui into the starting XI, out of nowhere, making him 51. from in the history of the Italian national team. The term “Oriundo” originally comes from the Latin verb “oriri”, to be born. This refers to Italians in the diaspora, often with very distant ancestors, who have acquired citizenship in their country of birth and residence – and then reflect on their origins for their own sporting glory and sometimes for the glory of their faded fatherland. There were famous ones, sometimes celebrated ones From the east over the decades: Omar Sivori, José Altafini and Mauro Camoranesi, for example. But there were also those who left quickly, sometimes after a single performance. Her commitment to Italy was always controversial.
It was the same with Mateo Retegui, it was even criticized that his first name only has one t, where the Italian equivalent is written with two ts: Matteo. All gossip. For 56 minutes Retegui was completely lost on the pitch against England, without a chance in close combat with his opponent Harry Maguire. Wrong timing, wrong routes. And balls? He didn’t get any. There were moments when you could really feel sorry for Retegui. The commentators on Italian television have already tried all sorts of mitigating circumstances. But then, when the Italians shifted their focus of play a little further forward, he was suddenly there, behind Maguire. Like a “shark”, write the newspapers. Until then, it had felt more like being fed to the sharks.
The debutant now got the best grades from all Italians. Because of the hit, just because of that flash in the night that didn’t prevent the defeat. It was Italy’s only shot at England’s goal of the evening. “Little Italy” is what the districts in the cities far away from Italy are called, where the emigrants settled, all together. With the nostalgia for the glorious and often glorified homeland.
