Martinez Lautaro
Lautaro Javier Martínez is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a striker for Serie A club Inter Milan and the Argentina national team. He began his football career in his native Argentina where he made his senior debut in 2015 with Racing Club. There he spent four seasons and represented the club in the league and Copa Libertadores, scoring 27 goals in 60 appearances before joining Inter in 2018. Martínez also previously represented Argentina at various youth levels and competed at the 2017 South American U-20 Championship and 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup. He made his senior international debut in 2018, and represented the senior squad at the 2019 Copa América, helping his team to a third place finish in the competition. Martínez was born in Bahía Blanca. He followed in his father’s footsteps to become a professional footballer, joining local side Liniers, with whom he excelled at U17 level. In 2013, he scored 13 goals in the U17 league and netted in the final of the National Cup, though Liniers ultimately lost on penalties to Rosario.
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This shirt was issued for Lautaro Martinez for the Serie A’s derby between A.C.Milan and Internazionale which took place in Milano, “Giuseppe Meazza” Stadium, on March 17th 2019. This is a special shirt worn by the team in only three games. It was released by Nike and it is a special mashup shirt to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its partnership with Internazionale. To create this shirt, Nike looked back on some of the highlights from Inter’s last two decades of competition, selecting the 10 kits that marked the clubs biggest achievements and fan memories. “Some of these kits are synonymous with great victories, while others are fan favourites,” said Pete Hoppins, Nike Football Apparel Senior Design Director. “The real challenge was to get all the different striped patterns to work cohesively.” The shirts selected are split into five for the front and five for the back. The front features Inter’s first season with Nike in 1998/99, which was famously worn by Brazilian striker Ronaldo; the club’s centenary season jersey from 2008/09; the 2010/11 jersey, for which club icon “Il Biscione” (grass snake) lent the classic stripes a snakeskin effect; the last jersey worn by legendary Inter captain Javier Zanetti in 2013/14; and the 2017/18 jersey, which was an important year for the club as it sealed a return to the Champions League. For the back, there’s the 2009/10 jersey, which was arguably Inter’s most famous in history as the club sealed their first ever domestic and European treble under Jose Mourinho; the first use of thin stripes from 2011/12; this was followed in 2014/15 by the pin striped jersey which also features; the jersey that celebrates the 25th anniversary of the UEFA Cup win from 2015/16 also makes an appearance; and rounding things off is a fan favourite from the 2016/17 season. Nike released quite a few special-edition mash-up jerseys for several teams over the 2018/2019 season. However, the Nike 2019 mash-up kits were not the first the Swoosh designed – the US brand already showed off their first mash-up kits in 2014, celebrating their 20th anniversary partnership with Arsenal. But unlike the others Nike mashup shirts, Internazionale was the only team to play with this style of jersey. Along with the standard player’s shirts, a Vaporknit match-level version has been produced and limited to 1,908 units to honor Inter’s founding year.
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After initially playing as a central defender in his youth, Martínez later established himself as a forward, citing Radamel Falcao as one of his major influences. A dynamic, quick, agile, and technically gifted player, who is a prolific goalscorer, he is known for his elegant playing style, good dribbling skills, and clinical finishing ability, as well as surprising physical strength and aerial prowess despite his diminutive stature; however, he has also drawn criticism from pundits for his lack of accuracy from the penalty spot. Possessing good link-up play, defensive contribution, and an ability to drop deep off the ball to either press opponents or drag them out of position, he is also a highly creative and hard-working player, who is capable of assisting goals as well as scoring them himself; as such, he is also able to play as a second striker, in addition to his usual role as either a centre-forward or out–and–out striker. Due to his leadership, tenacity, and mentality on the pitch, he has been nicknamed El Toro (“The Bull,” in Spanish). In 2020, Spencer Rance of 90min.com considered Martínez to be one of the most promising young players in world football, while manager Mauricio Pochettino rated him as one of the best strikers in the world. Former Argentina and Inter striker Hernán Crespo likened Martínez to compatriot Sergio Agüero in 2020.
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On 12 March 2018, Martínez received his first call-up for the senior team for two friendly matches against Italy and Spain. He made his debut against the latter on 27 March, coming on as a substitute for Gonzalo Higuaín in a 6–1 defeat. In May 2018 he was named in Argentina’s preliminary squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia but was omitted from the final selection. Later that year, he made his full debut in a 4–0 friendly win over Iraq during which he also scored his first senior international goal. In May 2019, Martínez was included in Lionel Scaloni’s final 23-man Argentina squad for the 2019 Copa América. In Argentina’s final group match against Qatar on 23 June, he scored the opening goal in a 2–0 win, which enabled them to advanced to the knock-out stages of the competition. On 28 June, in the quarter-finals of the tournament, Martínez scored the opening goal in an eventual 2–0 win over Venezuela with a back-heel in the opening ten minutes of the match; he was later named Man of the match, and the victory enabled Argentina to advance to the semi-finals of the competition. On 10 September 2019, Martínez scored his first international hat-trick in a friendly against Mexico, which Argentina won 4–0. On 28 June 2021, he scored Argentina’s final goal in a 4–1 win over Bolivia in his nation’s final group match of the 2021 Copa América. On 3 July, he scored the second goal in a 3–0 win over Ecuador in the quarter-finals of the competition. On 6 July, Martínez scored the opening goal in a 1–1 draw in the semi-finals against Colombia; he later netted his spot kick in Argentina’s eventual 3–2 penalty shoot-out victory to progress to the final.
