It was supposed that Mateo Retegui (Buenos Aires, 1999) was to be an Olympian with the Argentine field hockey team. His father Carlos had been an international player and even became the coach of the women's team, and his mother, María de la Paz, was a junior world champion. It was in his blood. And most importantly: he had the talent for it. But Mateo also liked soccer. Not always as his first choice, but he had qualities for both sports. Time has confirmed some suspicions because Retegui is the Capocannoniere of Serie A with Atalanta and today he faces Real Madrid. However, at the national team level, he does not represent his country but Italy, convinced by the Federation and forgotten by his own country.
The young Retegui joined the youth teams of River Plate, driven by his childhood desire and his father's ambition to succeed in the soccer world, but he ended up leaving the club when his teenage mindset shifted to focus on field hockey. He seemed destined to build a future away from the ball, but one day his father met a scout from Boca Juniors at the beach, and his career took a permanent turn. Yes, Retegui, who has switched from Argentina to Italy, had previously switched from River to Boca. That's life.
After playing hockey for two years, his return to soccer, during his adolescence at Boca, was not easy. He even wanted to leave again. "He came to say goodbye, and while his mother waited in the car, I told him he was a coward," recounted Diego Mazzilli to ESPN, one of the responsible figures at Boca's youth academy. That phrase changed his mindset once again.
Retegui, who was a midfielder, became a center forward. He scored goals and although he did not debut with the first team, he caught the attention of other clubs. At 20 years old, he was loaned to Estudiantes, then to Talleres, and at 22 he was signed by the Mexican club Tigre. There, he exploded. 19 goals in 26 matches and the call from the Italian Federation and Roberto Mancini to forget about Argentina and represent the transalpine country.
An Argentine forward, playing for the Mexican club Tigre, who almost left soccer for field hockey and had never played in Europe, became the star forward of the Italian national soccer team. It's a movie-like story. The reason behind it: Mateo's maternal grandparents, natives of Canicattì, a town in Sicily.
While his sister Micaela savored the silver medal she had won a couple of years earlier in the field hockey tournament at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Mateo accepted Mancini's Italian challenge. "He reminds me of Batitstuta when he was young," said the coach at the time. Quite a compliment.
Retegui made his debut with Italy on March 23. It was at the Naples stadium against England, to top it off. He scored his team's only goal just ten minutes after stepping onto the field. He showed what Italy needed: goals and hunger.
In the summer of 2023, Genoa offered 15 million euros to Tigre, and Retegui crossed the pond. His soccer evolution has been steady and resounding. He scored seven goals in his first season in Serie A, and Spalletti called him up for the Euro Cup, becoming the first Boca Juniors academy player to participate in the European tournament.
In Germany, Retegui was a substitute in three matches, including the one against Spain, and a starter in one. He didn't score, but he showed his virtues. So much so that Atalanta decided to pay 22 million euros for him after their main striker, Scamacca, suffered a serious injury, who was also a key player for the national team.
Under Gasperini's guidance, Retegui has become the top scorer in the Italian league. He has scored 12 goals in 15 league matches and two goals in the five Champions League games played. Atalanta leads in Italy and in Europe, and no one remembers Scamacca anymore. With the national team, he has scored two goals in the four matches played during this season's breaks and aims to be a starter in the short and medium-term future. At 25 years old, Retegui seeks to climb another step in the world of soccer. From River to field hockey, from field hockey to Boca, from Boca to Tigre, from Tigre to Europe... And we'll see.