Lautaro - The first

Not everything is clear from the start, as someone once said. Otherwise Vincent Van Gogh, for example, would have sold more than one painting during his lifetime. The same could be said of Inter vs. Cagliari in September eight years ago. Inter were due to travel to Eindhoven three days later for their first away game in the Champions League following the high of Inter vs. Tottenham. With Cagliari visiting San Siro three days earlier, Luciano Spalletti decided to give some regular starters a rest. Miranda replaced Skriniar, Gagliardini came in for Brozovic, Politano for Perisic and Dalbert for Asamoah. Up front, Lautaro Martinez started in place of Mauro Icardi, who was on the bench.

El Toro had joined Inter a few months earlier, with the club signing him from Racing Club de Avellaneda after a dramatic transfer battle with Atletico Madrid and Borussia Dortmund. Lautaro had made his debut three years earlier, at the age of 18, coming on for Diego Milito during the latter's final season as a professional. For Inter fans, it was an ideal passing of the torch: two very similar players, neither ever destined for greatness from the outset, but both determined to take everything they could and more. That summer, Lautaro was considered, alongside Keita Balde, the first alternative to Mauro Icardi in the centre-forward role. His first start came against Cagliari. Lautaro opened the scoring after just a few minutes, meeting a cross from the left with a header at the near post and sending the ball into the back of the net. The provider? As we said, not everything is clear from the start: it was Brazilian full-back Dalbert. For Lautaro, it was the beginning of an extraordinary journey that, eight years on, is still very much in progress. That first header has been followed by countless others, and the 200-goal mark no longer seems so far away. Not bad for a boy from Bahia Blanca who, at one point, seemed more suited to basketball than football, and who has never had anything handed to him. But players like him, like Diego Milito, take what they want when they put their minds to it.