On Sunday evening, Mateo Retegui will be one of the primary threats that Inter‘s defense will have to watch carefully in the direct Scudetto clash against Atalanta. The Italian-Argentine striker comfortably leads Serie A’s scoring chart with 22 goals, an impressive seven goals difference ahead of Moise Kean.
However, few among Atalanta supporters are aware that Retegui could have worn the Nerazzurri shirt of Inter. As reminded by Calciomercato.com, the former Genoa player has been targeted by the Nerazzurri club on two separate occasions. Back in his time at Tigre, before moving to Serie A, the center-forward was involved in negotiations involving former Inter player Facundo Colidio. At that time, Colidio, who was on loan at the Argentine club, was offered as part of a potential deal by Inter, who viewed the 1999-born player as an ideal backup for Lautaro.
The transfer, however, was complicated by Boca Juniors, the club that then held 50% ownership of Retegui’s registration rights together with Tigre and demanded a very high sum. After joining Genoa in the summer of 2023 and being surprisingly called up by Roberto Mancini, Retegui stayed firmly in Inter’s radar. But any attempt was hindered by Genoa‘s high valuation of the striker and, above all, by Inter’s budget constraints.
Consequently, attention shifted toward Mehdi Taremi, who eventually joined Inter on a free transfer after his contract expiration with Porto. Lastly, the failure to offload Correa and Arnautovic ultimately eliminated Inter’s hopes of signing Retegui, who eventually ended up at Atalanta after Scamacca’s unfortunate injury.
