Mateo Retegui (born 29 April 1999) is a professional footballer who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

club

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

and the Italy national team. He is nicknamed "''il Re tigre''" ("the tiger king").

Early life

Retegui holds Italian citizenship, although he was born and raised in Argentina. His maternal grandfather Angelo Dimarco emigrated to Argentina from Canicattì (

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

). His father's grandparents on one side of the family were also Italian, specifically from

(the other were Basque, hence his surname). He is the son of former

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

player Carlos Retegui, who represented Argentina as a player and coach at various

Pan American Games The Pan American Games (also known colloquially as the Pan Am Games) is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is held ...

and

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

. His sister Micaela is also an Olympian in the sport.

Club career

Retegui began his senior career with

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in the A ...

, who signed him years prior from River Plate. He was first promoted into the club's first-team by manager

Guillermo Barros Schelotto Guillermo Barros Schelotto (; born 4 May 1973) is an Argentine football manager and former forward who currently manages the Paraguay national team. Barros Schelotto played 16 years of his professional career in the Argentine Primera Divis ...

during the

2017–18 Argentine Primera División The 2017–18 Argentine Primera División - Superliga Argentina (officially the Superliga Quilmes Clásica for sponsorship reasons) was the 128 season of top-flight professional football in Argentina. The season began on 25 August 2017 and ended ...

season, appearing as an unused substitute on occasions against

Arsenal de Sarandí An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

and Estudiantes in December 2017. His professional debut arrived on 17 November 2018, with the forward being substituted on for the final moments of a 1–0 home win over Patronato. January 2019 saw Retegui loaned to Estudiantes for eighteen months. He appeared eight times in 2018–19, before scoring five goals in twenty-one appearances in 2019–20. In February 2022, Retegui joined Tigre on a loan deal until the end of 2023. On 26 July 2023, Retegui joined

club

on a five-year deal, for a reported fee of €15 million. On 11 August 2023, he scored his first two goals for the club in a

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

match against

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 ...

side

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

International career

Retegui represented Argentina at U19 and

U20 U20 or U-20 may refer to: Naval vessels * * , a sloop of the Royal Navy * , a submarine of the Austro-Hungarian Navy Other uses * Great truncated cuboctahedron * Meizu U20, a smartphone * Roland U-20, a synthesizer * Small nucleolar RNA SN ...

level, including for the latter at the

2018 South American Games The 2018 South American Games was a multi-sport event that took place in Cochabamba, Bolivia. It was the 11th edition of the ODESUR South American Games. A total of 373 sporting events are scheduled to be contested across a variety of sports. B ...

. Being eligible to play for

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

through descent, on February 2023 it was reported Retegui was pre-selected by

Roberto Mancini Roberto Mancini (; born 27 November 1964) is an Italian football manager and former player. He is currently the manager of the Italy national team. As a player, Mancini operated as a deep-lying forward, and was best known for his time at Samp ...

to join the ''Azzurri'' team for the first UEFA Euro 2024 qualification games. Retegui received his first official call up to the Italian national team on 17 March 2023, and proceeded to score in his international debut on 23 March against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in a Euro 2024 qualifying match lost 2–1 in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

. He would tally again in his subsequent appearance on 26 March, netting the winner in a 2–0 win over

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

in a Euro 2024 qualifier in Ta' Qali, to become the first player to score in his first two competitive matches for the national side since

Pierino Prati Pierino Prati (; 13 December 1946 – 22 June 2020) was an Italian footballer who played mainly as a forward. He began his career with Salernitana, and later played for several other Italian clubs, including a successful spell with AC Milan, wit ...

accomplished the feat in 1968.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Italy score listed first, score column indicates score after each Retegui goal.''

Honours

Individual *Top scorer:

2022 Argentine Primera División The 2022 Argentine Primera División - Liga Profesional will be the 132nd season of top-flight professional football in Argentina. The league season will begin on 5 June and will end on 23 October 2022. Twenty-eight teams will compete in the leag ...

(19 goals)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Retegui, Mateo 1999 births Living people People from San Fernando Partido Italian men's footballers Italy men's international footballers Argentine men's footballers Argentina men's under-20 international footballers Argentine people of Italian descent Men's association football forwards Argentine Primera División players Serie A players Boca Juniors footballers Estudiantes de La Plata footballers Talleres de Córdoba footballers Club Atlético Tigre footballers Genoa CFC players Footballers from Buenos Aires Province Italian people of Argentine descent Italian people of Basque descent Argentine people of Basque descent Argentine people of Sicilian descent