PLAYER BIOGRAPHY
Internazionale’s captain and talisman is enjoying the best season of his career
Early November 2015: an 18-year-old frontrunner by the name of Lautaro Martinez makes his senior bow for Racing Club in an Argentine league victory at home to Crucero del Norte, coming on as an 80th-minute substitute for veteran striker Diego Milito. A night to remember for the debutant and also one of unmistakeable symbolism, with club legend Milito passing the baton to a youngster destined for his own slice of greatness: a World Cup winners’ medal with Argentina in 2022 and iconic status as one of Internazionale’s most accomplished goalscorers of all time.
Martinez, aka El Toro (The Bull), did not merely follow in Milito’s footsteps. For three years, he was splendidly mentored by the older man, first as a team-mate then as director of sport at the club, the role he assumed on hanging up his boots in May 2016.
It’s highly unlikely that Martinez, who moved to Inter for a reported €22.7 million in the summer of 2018, would have pledged himself to the Nerazzurri without Milito’s input. A bona fide Inter legend after wearing the Black-and-Blue stripes with distinction for five seasons and contributing 30 goals to the club’s historic treble in 2009-10, Milito was only too pleased to sell his beloved former club to the next-generation starlet – even to the point of actively tilting negotiations in Inter’s favour.
“When I became the director of football at Racing, talks with Atletico Madrid were already underway,” revealed Milito in La Gazzetta dello Spor t. “The gap between the offer and our valuation was only two or three million. Nothing more. I called Javier Zanetti [Inter’s Argentine vice-president] because I knew that Inter were interested in him too. So I made my move. Piero Ausilio [then Inter’s director of football] came here and closed the deal. I’m not sure it was me who convinced him [Lautaro] to opt for a certain direction, but I’m happy that it turned out as it did. Inter deserve most of the praise for seizing the moment, for acting quickly to make an excellent signing.”
Asked during his first Inter press conference if he saw himself as Milito’s heir, Martinez replied that the former had “achieved amazing things at Inter” and that he hoped to do the same. The tale of the tape almost six years later? Mission accomplished – and then some. With 128 goals for Inter in 275 competitive games by the end of March, Martinez has proved even more prolific than Milito and in terms of Serie A goals has vastly outscored his old counsellor; Martinez’s threefigure haul dwarfing Milito’s 62.
This season, his first as Inter skipper, he has set about dominating the Italian scene. Scoring 23 goals in his first 26 Serie A matches speaks for itself, and not only has Lautaro every chance of claiming
