sport news Lautaro Martinez is Manchester City's greatest danger in the Champions League ... trends now
Erling Haaland is not the only centre forward expecting to fulfil his destiny in Istanbul on Saturday.
From Hernan Crespo to Diego Milito to Mauro Icardi, Inter Milan have always had a soft spot for Argentine strikers - and in current No 10 Lautaro Martinez, they might just have found the best of the lot.
Quick, strong, brave and effective both in the air and on the ground, Martinez - nicknamed 'The Bull' - is the greatest danger to Manchester City as they try to win the Champions League for the first time in their history.
'He is one of the best players in the world and he is a World Cup winner,' said Inter goalkeeper Andre Onana. 'I hope he will be on fire for us because we need him on top form. It will be very important for us.'
Forget his misfiring displays at the World Cup, when Martinez began the tournament as one of the favourites to win the Golden Boot but ended it on the bench.
Inter Milan's Lautaro Martinez will be Manchester City's biggest Champions League final threat
Quick, strong and deadly in the box, Martinez (pictured on the floor) is now a firm Inter hero
Pep Guardiola will have to plot to find a way to silence Martinez, nicknamed 'The Bull'
Seven games is far too small a sample size by which to judge a player and had Martinez's strike in Argentina's opener against Saudi Arabia not been ruled out by the most marginal of VAR offside calls, who knows how different it might have been for him in Qatar.
Concentrate instead on the way the 25-year-old leads the line for Inter. Look at how he is an effective partner for both Romelu Lukaku and Edin Dzeko, two very different types of strikers. Focus on his 21 goals in Serie A, second only to Victor Osimhen, whose 26 helped Napoli secure their first league title since 1990 and only the third in their history.
No wonder Lionel Messi wanted to bring Martinez to Barcelona four years ago and why Messi's great friend Luis Suarez called him 'a special striker with fantastic movement.'
Martinez's progress is all the more impressive when you consider that when he joined Inter for about £22million in 2018, he had fewer than three years' senior football behind him, and no experience of the European game.
Indeed, he was close to dedicating himself to basketball, rather than
