It’s not just the volume but the variety of goals that has scouts flocking to Turin this season.
It seems every club worth its salt has had more than a passing glance at Andrea Belotti recently.
And with good reason. In ten Serie A starts, the Torino talisman has ten Serie A goals, capped by another brace in Sunday’s comfortable 2-0 win at Crotone. Not that his clinical finishing and expert movement is restricted to his displays for Turin’s second club, however.
Just last week, one of the most in-demand players in the European game proved his class on the international front. First there was the tap in, reacting with innate predatory instinct to anticipate a loose ball from a corner kick and flick home first-time. Then there was the assist, a beautifully subtle knockdown for strike-partner Ciro Immobile. And, with just seconds remaining of the first half, he tucked home his second, a by-product of expert movement and dead-eyed composure.
Few players can genuinely lay claim to being the ‘complete striker’. Robert Lewandowski isn’t the quickest after all, while even Thierry Henry struggled in the air. Yet, Belotti appears to have it all; the pace, the movement, the awareness and the ice-cool finishing with each and every body part. According to Opta, no player in Europe’s top five leagues has scored more than three goals this season each with their left foot, right foot or head. No one except Belotti that is.
Tuttosport claim that Everton are tracking the 22-year-old, while Calciomercato reported that Liverpool and Arsenal are keeping their eyes, and their chequebooks open.
Ronald Koeman knows, and publically accepts, that Romelu Lukaku won’t be around forever. And, while Jurgen Klopp and Arsene Wenger can take solace in knowing that their ‘false nine’ hypothesis has so far delivered the desired results, the season is long and opposition defences varied. They could do worse than a striker who appears to have no discernible weakness.
What do you get the man who’s got it all? A bigger club, perhaps.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
