‘Lethal’ Retegui is leading reshaped Atalanta … and Serie A’s scoring charts

Mateo Retegui is not afraid to make a snap decision. When Roberto Mancini phoned to ask if he would consider representing the Italian national team last March, the striker “didn’t have to think about it. I just said yes right away”. Born and raised in Argentina, he had never lived in Italy nor did he speak the language, yet within days he marked his international debut with a goal against England in Naples.

A choice that shifted his whole life’s trajectory. Twenty-three years old and playing for Tigre on loan from Boca Juniors, Retegui was hardly at the forefront of most European scouts’ minds. He scored 23 goals across all competitions in 2022, yet domestically there were doubts as to his ceiling. His parent club had declined their option to bring him back at the end of the year, while the Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni was indifferent to Retegui declaring for Italy.

Playing for the Azzurri – and scoring, as he also did in his second international game, against Malta, days later – opened up a whole new market. Several clubs in Italy and Spain made enquiries but Genoa acted decisively to sign him in the summer of 2023. Retegui bagged seven goals in his first Serie A season.

Still, there was little consensus regarding his talent. Retegui had found the net once for every 318 minutes that he played, neither a spectacular return nor a disgraceful one for a player adjusting to life on a new continent, with a club that had only just bounced back from the second tier.

He continued to feature regularly for Italy, but was that more a reflection of his performances or the country’s lack of options? Mancini lamented a shortage of attacking talent before he quit and took the Saudi Arabia job last August. Retegui failed to score in four appearances before Italy limply exited Euro 2024 in the last 16.

So did Gianluca Scamacca, with whom he alternated at centre-forward. A player whose subsequent injury opened up the next big opportunity of Retegui’s career.

On 4 August, Scamacca ruptured the cruciate ligament in his left knee during a friendly for Atalanta against Parma. Four days later, Retegui signed for the Bergamese club. An intermediary came to get him in the middle of training for Genoa: “They said: get your things, we need to go to Milan for a medical.”

Another snap decision. Another good one. Not everyone was convinced Retegui would be a natural fit at Atalanta, who paid a reported €22m plus bonuses. Scamacca is a target man, whose associative back-to-goal play was essential to a team that finished fourth in Serie A and won the Europa League last season. Retegui is a completely different mould of centre-forward: one who lives to get into the penalty box.

Atalanta would need to reshape their entire attacking approach to get the most from his talents. For another team that might seem like a tough ask so close to the start of a new season. Perhaps not for one coached by Gian Piero Gasperini.

The manager’s extraordinary capacity for retooling has long since ceased to be a local secret. Atalanta have gone through at least three distinct eras in the eight years since Gasperini took charge, from a top-four team built around Papu Gómez and Franck Kessié, to Champions League quarter-finalists powered by Duván Zapata, Luis Muriel and Josip Ilicic, and now the club’s first-ever European trophy, earned by new heroes including Scamacca, Teun Koopmeiners and Ademola Lookman.

Still, this summer presented him with unwelcome challenges even before Scamacca went down. Centre-back Giorgio Scalvini suffered his own cruciate ligament injury at the end of last season, Koopmeiners was sold to Juventus, and Lookman missed the start of the campaign amid reports that he, too, was lobbying for a transfer.

Integrating Retegui could have been one more headache. Instead, the striker made it look easy. After a cameo off the bench in Atalanta’s Super Cup defeat to Real Madrid, Retegui started Atalanta’s Serie A opener against Lecce and scored twice in a 4-0 win. He struck again in the next game, away to Torino.

Not everything was perfect. Atalanta lost that second match before being trounced 4-0 by Inter. Yet Retegui bagged another goal immediately afterwards in a 3-2 win over Fiorentina and, though he did miss a penalty in his Champions League debut against Arsenal, the way fans sang his name afterwards spoke volumes.

Their appreciation has only deepened since. Retegui struck again as Atalanta won 2-0 away to Venezia on Sunday, his eighth goal in eight games – enough to make him Serie A’s top scorer.

This one was a blend of opportunism and finesse. Retegui punished Antonio Candela’s lack of urgency to claim a bouncing ball outside the box, before lifting a close-range chip over a goalkeeper who had extended himself to full height.

Among the most impressive aspects of Retegui’s fast start has been the variety of ways in which he has connected ball with net. He has already scored three headers, more than Scamacca managed in the entire last campaign. The other five goals include strikes off both his left boot and his right. There have even been a pair of assists.

“Retegui is showing great value,” said Gasperini at full time on Sunday. “He still has margins for growth but technically he is doing really well … he arrived here very determined and the few things we’ve asked him to do he has put into practice on the pitch right away.”

How much of the credit is due to the manager? Gasperini has adapted his tactics, developing a 3-4-2-1 in which Lookman and Charles De Ketelaere share the wide spaces with Atalanta’s wing-backs, allowing Retegui to focus his abundant energies on getting into the box. Yet the striker has also seized his opportunity more confidently than many might have predicted.

We had seen already last season how he could trouble defenders, bullish physicality and direct running combined with excellent instincts close to goal. But the technical quality alluded to by Gasperini has not always seemed as apparent as it does now. Retegui almost scored sooner on Sunday, taming a 60-yard pass with his first touch before running through to fire just wide of the far post.

Retegui, 25, told La Gazzetta dello Sport earlier this month that he had not had time to find a place to live in Bergamo, yet in every other sense he looks more and more at home in Italian football. His form has carried over to the national team, for whom he scored against both Belgium and Israel in Nations League games this month.

“He’s a very serious lad,” said the Italy manager Luciano Spalletti last week. “Inside the box, he is lethal. And now he has learned how to connect with the team better. He’s going to become a top player.”