Mateo Retegui’s father Carlos says it would be ‘an honour and a great pride’ for the Argentine-born striker to play for Italy.
In anticipation of his first call-up to the Italian national team, the father of Argentine-born striker Mateo Retegui has given an interview to Gazzetta dello Sport, speaking of his son’s excitement at the prospect of turning out for the Azzurri.
Retegui senior also explained how Mateo is eligible to represent Roberto Mancini’s European Championship-winning side and has identified some of his son’s idols in the footballing world.
He told the Italian outlet: “Mateo holds an Italian passport thanks to his maternal grandfather Angelo Dimarco, who came to Argentina and was from Canicattì in the province of Agrigento.
“He doesn’t want to talk about it publicly, but he’s excited.” Mateo has not yet given an interview since the news of his potential call-up broke.
His father continued: “He told me that it will be an honour and a great pride to be called up by the European champions if the coach Mancini confirms it.
“He is very happy, proud and enthusiastic. Now he wants to focus on Tigre, on Saturday night’s match against Central di Cordoba, keep his feet on the ground and stay humble”.
Retegui also has strong ambitions of playing in Europe one day, although his father explained that a transfer might not be particularly straightforward given his current loan situation.
“He is still owned by Boca Juniors, with the possibility of Tigre buying 50 percent of his playing rights by the end of the year. So they will have to agree with both clubs to buy him. I’ll tell you that many European clubs have been looking for him, obviously, Europe is his dream.”
Talking about his son’s rise to the top of the Argentinian pyramid, Carlos Retegui confirmed that at certain stages, a career in football might not have materialised.
“Before, as a kid, he played as the midfielder in front of the defence in the River Plate youth teams. He did it aged 9 to 14, then he left because he was also very strong in field hockey, the family sport. He was also on the youth national team. Until he was 15, he practised both sports, until he was “rediscovered” by a Boca scout who convinced him to play football.”
Carlos, nicknamed ‘Chapa’, is a prominent figure in Argentinian sport, having represented his nation at three different Olympic Games with the national hockey team, adding a gold medal with the men’s team as head coach and a world championship title with the women’s side.
‘Chapa’ also listed some of the strikers Mateo has taken inspiration from over the years, including a host of Serie A fan favourites.
“In the past he liked powerful and technical strikers who play like him: Christian Vieri from Inter, Marco Van Basten from Milan, Batistuta from Fiorentina. Now Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the Norwegian from City Haaland, who plays very similarly to Mateo’s game. He is ambidextrous and very good and powerful with his head.”
With Retegui eligible to play for Italy in their upcoming Euro 2024 qualifiers against England and Malta, was asked whether Argentina had any intentions of adding him to their reigning world cup winning squad.
“The Under-19 team called him only once in 2018 for a South American tournament. That’s it,” was his response. Only time will tell if that is a decision Lionel Scaloni will come to regret.
This is great news hopefully we have a great striker on our hands