Italy is under the spell of Mateo Retegui, however, this might be an issue to Roberto Mancini’s ‘Oriundi’ problem. The neo-international is the first Azzurri player in 55 years to score in his first two competitive international matches. The Italian discovery gives national coach Roberto Mancini ideas.
Discovery Retegui gives Italy ideas: “Switzerland and Belgium are doing it too”
The story is known. Due to the striker problem, the Italian federation ended up in Argentina, where Retegui is causing a furore at Tigre. The 23-year-old striker is originally an Argentinian, but has an Italian grandparent. Retegui then received a call-up from Mancini, snapped and scored against both England (1-2 loss) and Malta (0-2 win).
Retegui is not the only ‘foreigner’ in Italy’s selection. Born Brazilians Jorginho, Rafael Toloi and Emerson Palmieri are the other Oriundi, as they call it in Italy. Mancini does not exclude that more will follow. “Switzerland, Belgium, France, Germany, England… They all do it,” said the national coach at the press conference.
Retegui is not yet able to speak Italian, although the goalscorer did his best to at least sing the national anthem. “He tried, that’s good to see. Serie A would be a nice step. That can help him learn the language and communicate better with his teammates on the field,” Mancini said.
Necessity breaks the law
Whether more Oriundi will follow after Retegui and the aforementioned Brazilians? “That’s a possibility. Look at other countries, it happens there too. Fifteen of the twenty players in Switzerland are Oriundi. They also do it in Belgium, France, Germany and England. Until a few years ago we had many strong players and the need was not there. But others were already doing that then, so we’re adapting and doing the same thing now,” he added.
In any case, necessity breaks the law for Mancini, who could not have access to the injured Ciro Immobile during the current international period. As a trainer of Internazionale, the current national coach was not behind a call for then Inter-striker Éder eight years ago. “The Italian team must be Italian,” Mancini said at the time. “Someone who wasn’t born in Italy, even if he has Italian family ties, doesn’t deserve it.”
