A player from Argentina will get some attention when Italy and England face off in their first European Championship qualification match on Thursday.
Mateo Retegui, a forward, has been selected by Italy coach Roberto Mancini for the first time, reigniting a national discussion regarding choosing players of foreign birth for the national team.
Retegui was born in Argentina and has played all of his professional football there, representing the continent at the Under-19 and Under-20 levels. Yet despite having Italian citizenship via his maternal grandmother, he has never played for the senior national team.
The 23-year-old Retegui has chosen to answer the call of the Azzurri, who didn’t even qualify for last year’s event, rather than waiting for his opportunity to play for the World Cup champions.
He has the talent and is a young, intelligent lad, so we had been watching him for a while, Mancini stated. “We hope he can be significant,” they said, “since we didn’t expect he would say yes.” Retegui, who represents Argentine side Tigre on loan from Boca Juniors, was the league’s leading scorer last year with 19 goals. With six goals in eight games, he is also in first place in the current rankings.
And on Thursday, he may make his debut in Naples in a stadium named after another Argentine who is considerably more well-known: Diego Maradona.
Ciro Immobile, Giacomo Raspadori, and Gianluca Scamacca are all injured, leaving Mancini with little choices up front. Gianluca Scamacca is also not totally fit.
Mancini stated, “I don’t know why there are so few attackers; our offensive is quite restricted. “There are three (Italian) clubs in the quarterfinals of the Champions League, but there are only at most seven, eight Italian players on those teams. The situation is how it is.
Brazil-born Jorginho is one recent example of how South American players from Italy’s lengthy history of doing so after making a name for themselves in Serie A.
Retegui’s appointment, though, has generated more discussion, in part because he hasn’t played for Italy and in part because Mancini criticized Antonio Conte for employing players who weren’t Italian while Conte was in charge of the Italian national team.
At the time, Mancini, who was then the manager of Inter Milan, said that “the Italian national team should be Italian” and that he did not believe that anybody who was not an Italian citizen “deserves to” play for the nation.
Mancini said on Monday that “if there is a possibility to recruit new players, we will grab them.”
Years ago, I advocated for Italian-born athletes to represent their country, but times have changed and that issue has not yet arisen.
Record is calling Kane.
This will be England’s first game after their World Cup quarterfinal defeat to France, giving striker Harry Kane the opportunity to break the nation’s all-time goal scoring record. Kane and Wayne Rooney are tied for 53 goals in international play.
Marcus Rashford of Manchester United has withdrawn out of the team due to a “knock,” according to the club, but Southgate has called up Ivan Toney despite the Brentford striker potentially facing a ban for allegedly breaking various gambling laws. The Azzurri defeated the Three Lions 1-0 at San Siro in September’s Nations League fixture, Italy’s most recent home game.
In the Euro 2020 championship game, Mancini’s squad also defeated England on penalties.
After failing to make the 2018 World Cup, that victory served as a form of atonement for Italy, and now the Azzurri are seeking revenge for losing out on the championship in Qatar last year.
new guard
With a new coach and Cristiano Ronaldo away from the biggest stadiums, Portugal is entering a new chapter as they begin their European Championship qualification campaign.
On Thursday, Portugal faces Liechtenstein at home in Group J, with Roberto Martnez making his coaching debut and Cristiano Ronaldo still in the lineup.
After a mostly unsuccessful period with Manchester United, Ronaldo left Europe for the Saudi club Al Nassr. This will be his first appearance with Portugal since that time. After matching Bader Al-record Mutawa’s of 196 appearances for Kuwait during the 2018 World Cup, he is on track to establish a new record for appearances with a national team overall.
Captain De Bruyne
Fernando Santos, who resigned in December after Portugal’s defeat to Morocco in the World Cup quarterfinals, is being replaced by Martnez.
Due to a muscular ailment, striker Jeremy Doku withdrew from Belgium’s team for the qualification against Sweden on Friday and the friendly in Germany the following week.
Domenico Tedesco, the new manager of Belgium, led his team in practice for the first time on Tuesday and designated Kevin De Bruyneas the team’s new captain.
