Mauro Zarate taking Serie A by storm

By: Francesco | September 30th, 2008

Maradona, Caniggia, Sensini, Balbo, Chamot, Simeone, Redondo, Batistuta, Crespo, Veron. The list of great Argentinian players to grace the pitches of Serie A can go on and on. And pretty soon we might have to add another name to the list: Mauro Zarate. The 21 year old striker is on fire, leading the Serie A scoring charts with 6 goals in the first 5 games and giving defenders nightmares. At the beginning of the season it seemed like Delio Rossi wasn’t going to start Zarate right away, but an injury to Tommaso Rocchi forced Rossi to start Zarate and the Argentine has paid his manager back with excellent performances. He is definitely one of the steals of the transfer market.

Lazio actually had no plans to sign Zarate this summer, and were very close to not signing him at all. Corriere dello Sport has an article today that explains the whole story. Lazio were very close to signing Boca Juniors striker Rodrigo Palacio and Boca were going to sign Zarate. The deal was all set to be completed when Jose Alberti, and agent and Argentine football expert who helped bring Maradona to Napoli, intervened.

Alberti called up Lazio president Claudio Lotito and said, “Listen, why don’t you sign Zarate? He’s an incredible talent, believe me”. Lotito responded: “Inform me about the player, let me see some videos of him”. Alberti then told Lotito to go on youtube and watch some videos (amazing the technological world we live in today) and left him his cell number. After 30 minutes, Lotito called Alberti back saying: “I want to sign him right away, put me in contact with his agents.” And the rest is history, as Lotito started negotiations with Qatar club Al-Saad (who own Zarate) and got the striker on loan, with the option to buy at season’s end. And we all know Lotito will definitely be using that option come June.

So what’s next for Zarate? Well he’ll continue to be Lazio’s star up front and continue to try and score goals. If he keeps up the good form, maybe a call from Alfio Basile is next?

Here’s a video of Zarate’s first few games with Lazio: