Toro, increasingly top scorer in the championship (22 goals in 23 games played: this is his record), is not satisfied: the scudetto is ever closer, but he preaches concentration like a true leader
– MILAN
His numbers are increasingly impressive. And with them he is writing the history of Inter, as well as dragging it towards scudetto number twenty, that of the second star so coveted by president Zhang and the fans. Lautaro Martinez is the cover face of a team, that of Simone Inzaghi, capable of winning 21 of the 25 championship matches and keeping its goal unbeaten on 16 occasions. Toro also took center stage at Via del Mare by scoring his 100th and 101st goals with the Nerazzurri shirt in Serie A. He is now the ninth player to reach this milestone with just one team before turning 27 (before him there was Giuseppe Meazza succeeded with Inter, Felice Borel with Juventus, Giampiero Boniperti with Juventus, Gino Pivatelli with Bologna, Omar Sivori with Juventus, Altafini with Milan, Luigi Riva with Cagliari and Mauro Icardi with Inter), but above all he is increasingly the top scorer in the championship with 22 goals in 23 matches. He can surpass the absolute record of Immobile and Higuain (36 goals), but for him what matters above all is arriving at the Italian finish line with his arms raised. “I try – said the striker -, but the most important thing is that Inter win. This success means a lot for us because we are having important continuity and we are playing great football. We are doing a great job with our teammates and I am happy but we have to continue like this because it’s not over.”
VIERI and THE ARGENTINES
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Bobo scored 103 times with Inter in Serie A and now, after overtaking him in the general Nerazzurri rankings (127 against 123), Martinez also wants to put an arrow in the league goal rankings. “Choosing the most beautiful of these goals is difficult, even if I remember almost all of them: if I really have to, I’ll say the hundredth. Certainly this is a beautiful day for me because I remember such an achievement for a long time. When I left At 15 years old, I didn’t think all this could happen. I owe everything to my family. My secret? Working together with my teammates. Thanks to this, they can still grow a lot.” Then on the scudetto: “I’m happy that we also won here in Lecce, but we still have nothing in hand.” Two other data make it clear how important the goal achieved by the boy from Bahia Blanca is: the Argentines capable of exceeding 100 goals in Before him there are only six: Gabriel Batistuta, Hernan Crespo, Gonzalo Higuain, Mauro Icardi, Abel Balbo and Paulo Dybala. Restricting the discussion to the history of Inter instead, Martinez is the third foreigner to exceed 100 after Nyers (133) and Icardi (111). Nyers, like him, was also capable of scoring at least 20 goals in three seasons in a row. The third to do so in Inter history was a certain Meazza.
AWAY AND… RECORD BOMBER JACKET
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Of the 22 goals in Serie A in 2023-24, Lautaro scored 14 away. With 13 matches still on the calendar he has already surpassed his record of 21 league goals set in 2021-22 and 2022-23. “We will never get tired of seeing him” Inter wrote on his website, posting a photo of Toro rejoicing. Inzaghi also praised him: “he is having an incredible journey, like Immobile with me at Lazio”.
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