Esposito and Riva's record: the numbers open up a possible scenario

Five goals a year would be enough to become the all-time top scorer for the Italian national team. This is what emerges from the calculations published by the Gazzetta dello Sport, which analyzed the trajectory of Pio Esposito from a historical perspective, comparing it with the 35 goals scored by Gigi Riva in the blue jersey.

According to the pink newspaper, if he maintains his current average — more than one goal every two matches, with a frequency of about one goal every 101 minutes — Esposito could reach that figure as early as 2030, at just 25 years old, assuming about fifteen matches per season. This scenario would become even more likely if Italy were to return to playing in a World Cup.

On the same topic, Christian Vieri also spoke, interviewed by the Gazzetta dello Sport. “The achievement would be perfectly feasible even by lowering the super average of one goal every 101 minutes he is currently maintaining,” reports the newspaper. “Because even with just five goals a year, he would become the record holder in 2032, at 27 years old. Compared to Riva’s record, Pio has age on his side but above all the central role in Roberto Mancini’s project: despite the necessary rotations in the recently concluded mini-cycle of the Nations League, the starting center forward position in the coach’s hierarchy is his, with all due respect to Scamacca and Kean.”

Numbers and projections that, for now, belong to the realm of hypotheses, but which tell the story of a young man already at the center of the national team’s technical project.