Beto holds up the comparison: his departure is worthy of Bierhoff and Balbo

With that at Atalanta he scored three goals after 55 days and 9 games in black and white His numbers compared to those of the great center-forward of the past including Totò

UDINE

The story is still there, to be written, and woe to force the comparisons with the “sacred monsters” that preceded it. However, with his three goals lined up one after the other in the last three days, Beto Betuncal is already holding his own against the super center forwards of the Pozzo era, first natural strikers like Oliver Bierhoff, Abel Balbo and Vincenzo Iaquinta, or the latter who then became, as in the case of Totò Di Natale who once brought to the center of the attack became the most prolific scorer in the history of the club, or of those who remained, read Marcio Amoroso, top scorer in the ‘ 99 with 22 goals, and the great Zico.

Let’s face it, after the imperious detachment with which Beto set the equal of Bergamo, we succumbed to the temptation to browse through the archives to compare the Portuguese start of the season with those of the Juventus super bomber, and we did it taking into consideration the apprenticeship. , which plays against Beto, bought on August 31, compared to the bombers that in the past were bought on July 1. Thus, the first three goals scored by the Portuguese in the first 9 days (7 for him, having arrived after the matches with Juve and Venice), take on an even more indicative value, because they are not only the first three scored in the 441 minutes, with a ownership gained only in the last four days, but above all in its first 55 working days in Friuli.

Only Oliver Bierhoff, who in the 1995-’96 season, the first of three in Friuli, got off to a flying start with three goals in three days, signing the victory over Cagliari (1-0). to achieve the double in the 3-2 at the Cremonese in the third round. All this, in his first 79 days in Udine, which then became three years with a legacy of 62 goals in 96 games and the title of top scorer at 27 in 1997-’98. The third best start belongs to the Argentine Abel Balbo, who in the 1989 -90 season took 7 days and 92 days to sign the first three of the 70 goals then scored until 1993 with the black and white shirt worn 144 times, between two championships of A and as many among the cadets.

Always using the apprenticeship criterion, and without considering the competitiveness of the various teams in which they played, a separate case was that of Totò Di Natale, who in his first season played outside striker in Spalletti’s 3-4-3, with the central Iaquinta and the external Di Michele on the right. The premise counts as a reminder that Totò took 157 days and 14 shifts to sign the first three seals. Then the story turned when Pasquale Marino turned him into first striker, from 2008, obtaining two consecutive top scorer titles from 2009 to 2011, respectively with 28 and 29 goals. All pearls for the most precious necklace and that gift delivered to Udinese, with the record of 227 goals. Never anyone like him.

The most complicated start was Vincenzo Iaquinta, who after scoring two goals in the first three games played in 2000, taking away a penalty from Fiore in his debut against Brescia, took 477 days and another 40 days to find the third goal, signed in the following championship in Bergamo on 21 October 2001, in the resounding 5-1 inflicted on the Goddess with Roy Hodgson on the bench. –