Pio Esposito scores again and is making his way into the Azzurri’s history: all the records with Italy, is Riva within reach in the goalscorers rankings?
Francesco Pio Esposito, the man of records. His goal in Italy's final 4-1 win away to Turkey set several new records, strengthening the Inter forward's place in the Azzurri history books for both his goalscoring and his precocity.
That diving header was his sixth goal in 11 matches played in the Italy shirt. Esposito now boasts an outstanding average of 0.55 goals per game, even better than Roberto Baggio. In fact, from the 1990s onwards no one has such a ratio between appearances and goals scored. If the scope is widened to include the whole of Italy's history, the Castellammare-born 2005 player ranks 13th all-time for goals-per-game average among those who have scored at least six times.
Leading Italy's ranking for goals-per-game average is Annibale Frossi, who played in the 1930s and scored eight goals in five matches, ahead of Sivori, Libonatti, Piola and Riva. Pio is above nine modern players such as Moise Kean and Christian Vieri, as well as illustrious names such as Amedeo Amadei and Pierino Prati. Thanks to the goal against Turkey, scored before he has even turned 21, and in a match in which he also provided an assist for Kadoye, he has effectively climbed to an average of one goal every 101 minutes on the pitch for Italy.
There is more, because the goal for 4-1 in Bursa takes him, as mentioned, beyond the five-goal mark for Italy, and he has done it at the age of 21 years and 92 days. Only two players managed it younger: Giuseppe Meazza (19 years and 261 days) and Gianni Rivera (21 years and 78 days). The Inter striker is the third-youngest ever to do it, another milestone that underlines his rise. After an excellent first season in the first team, he is carving out more and more space this year in the system of his mentor Chivu and has already produced two goals and one assist.
Trusted completely by head coach Mancini, Esposito's numbers for Italy already stand out, and they look even more noteworthy when projected into the future. It would be no surprise if, within a few years, the Inter forward were to climb many places in the all-time Italy scorers' rankings, a table that has seen little movement at the top for years.
Right now he sits in 77th place with 6 goals, alongside Pellegrini and Bernardeschi, and if he keeps up this rate Esposito could quickly move past plenty of the names above him. Among active players, Federico Chiesa and El Shaarawy have 7 goals, Berardi has 8, Frattesi 9, Barella 10, Retegui and Raspadori 11, Belotti 12, Kean 13 and Balotelli 14. With 8 goals in the coming months, and if the "contenders" stay stuck, Pio could soon become the Azzurri's top scorer still in activity. The table is so tight that even the top 10 already looks within reach.
From 6 goals, and with 2 matches against France and Turkey to be played in the coming days, Italy's number 7 has plenty of Azzurri totems in his sights: with another 10 goals in the coming months/years, he would join Toni and Vialli on 16. On 17 there is Immobile, on 19 Bettega and Gilardino, on 20 Paolo Rossi and on 21 De Rossi.
Before he can break into the top 10, he would have to go past Sandro Mazzola (22 goals for Italy) and then target the 23 goals of Vieri and Graziani, and the 25 of Baloncieri, Inzaghi and Altobelli. The top five then starts with Baggio and Del Piero on 27 goals, while the podium has long been made up of Piola on 30, Meazza on 33 and Riva on 35.
For now, those heights remain only a dream for Esposito, who is still 29 goals behind Rombo di Tuono. The task is certainly difficult but not impossible, given the youngster's quality and his age. If he were even to come close to the Cagliari legend, Italian football would have rediscovered the kind of goalscorer it has lacked, at least in numerical terms, for many years. All that remains is to hope so and keep cheering for him and for Mancini's Azzurri.
