Crystal Palace could potentially sign a ‘world-class’ striker in Mateo Retegui with the Italy international’s agent set to hold talks in London ahead of a potential summer move to the Premier League.
Many in Southern Europe did their best Carlo Ancelotti impression when the news of Retegui’s shock call-up filtered through, eyebrows raised aplenty as Roberto Mancini utilised the old ‘Granny Rule’ to introduce an Argentine with an Italian grandmother into his Azzurri set up.
Retegui has wasted little time in justifying Mancini’s faith, however. After scoring a consolation in Thursday’s 2-1 defeat to England in Naples, Retegui made it two from two with a bullet header in a much-needed if unconvincing win over Malta.
You can expect to hear a lot more of Retegui over the coming weeks and months; Corriere dello Sport claiming that the 23-year-old’s agent will arrive in London ahead of talks with a number of parties.
Crystal Palace and Brighton and Hove Albion are reportedly among them.
Crystal Palace and Brighton like Italy striker Mateo Retegui
Don’t be surprised to see Udinese make an approach of their own. Especially with the club’s head of recruitment speaking in glowing terms about a man contracted to Argentine giants Boca Juniors.
“We have all the world-class players in our archive,” Andrea Carnevale tells Udinese TV. “Including Retegui. Mancini did well to call him up because he’s very good.”
If Boca could turn back the clock, they would surely have second thoughts about loaning Retegui out to domestic rivals Club Atletico Tigre, all the while including a £2 million option-top-buy clause in his contract.
Tigre will reportedly trigger that clause before selling the all-action centre-forward for an immediate and potentially substantial profit. Retegui, in 51 games, has 29 goals for El Matador.
“He couldn’t have started better,” Argentine legend Hernan Crespo tells Gazzetta dello Sport; encouraging Inter milan to take a punt on Retegui
“The Nerazzurri are doing very well to follow him because he is a centre-forward who has important qualities. Lautaro (Martinez) is different from Retegui. He links the play more and knows how to be deadly in the penalty area.
“Retegui, for now, is very good up front. The important thing is that Retegui understands European football, not just Italian, which is very different from Argentine football. If he has the will, he has no shortage of skills.”
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