Marco Pellegri was emotional after seeing his son, Pietro, score twice for Genoa against Lazio
Marco Pellegri ran a hand through his hair and reached for the phone inside his jacket pocket.

The 53-year-old was doing everything possible not to cry. But it ended up being too much for him, and he slumped into his seat in the Genoa dugout and let the emotion pour out.

Pellegri, the team's administrator, had just seen his son, 16-year-old Pietro, score his and the side's second goal of the night in a Serie A game against Lazio after coming on for Ricardo Centurion in the first half.

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A dream come true for the boy's father, Marco once said that if he ever got to see Pietro play for Genoa at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris he could die happy. Consider his life fulfilled then. The pictures of Marco's sobs made headlines around the world and caused Pietro to choke up when shown to him after the game, a 3-2 defeat that condemned Genoa to their worst start in 40 years.




Suddenly it all came back to Pietro. The hours spent in the car as his dad taxied him from one game to the next. The afternoons spent standing in the wind and rain to see his boy. The young striker was overcome with emotion too. After all, this is what they had talked about all along; Pietro scoring in front of the Gradinata Nord, the stand the Genoa fans congregate in. One of their own.

The Pellegris are from Genoa. They live in Pegli, the seaside town to the west of the city where Genoa have their training ground. Marco has worked at the club for years, initially in the academy, now as team manager for the first team. His wife Marzia is from a family of Sampdoria fans. But Pietro "only ever had eyes for Genoa".

When the club were relegated to the third division in a match-fixing scandal 12 years ago, Marco Rossi, the club's talismanic captain, used to come around for dinner and play Playstation with Pellegri's boy. Rossi made 286 appearances for Genoa and remains to this day an idol of the club's fans. Pietro was only ever going to support one club: Genoa, the Grifone.

What makes his story all the more remarkable though is that, despite being so young, the best clubs in the world have been knocking on his door for years.

He could have joined Man Utd
Pellegri's landmarks
Pellegri is the joint-youngest player to have featured in a Serie A game, with Amedeo Amadei (both 15 years 280 days) Pellegri is the youngest player to score two goals in a Serie A match
Pellegri is the third-youngest scorer in Serie A after Amadei and Gianni Rivera He has played in four consecutive Serie A games, starting the last three
Beppe Marotta, the general manager of Juventus, claims he first tried to sign Pietro two years ago "when nobody" knew anything about him.

This summer Inter actually agreed to pay 60m euros (£53m) for Pietro and another of Genoa's 16-year-old stars, Eddie Salcedo, only for a mix of financial fair play and the capital controls introduced by China's government to scupper the plans of owners Suning.

And on transfer deadline day, AC Milan looked to immediately reinvest the money they got from Torino for M'Baye Niang with a move for Pietro. "But we were unsuccessful," lamented chief executive Marco Fassone.

They will all try again. Some say it is too soon to be sure of Pietro's talent and the watching world has to be cautious. But Italy's Big Three don't want to be too late in recognising it either.

Genoa owner Enrico Preziosi has been talking Pietro up for a while now. "We have the new Messi," the toy-maker boasted in 2015. "He's called Pellegri." That was the year Roma said they would send Marco Borriello Genoa's way and pay a big chunk of his wages as long as they got Pietro in return.

It was also the year Genoa participated in the Manchester United Premier Cup in Salford. Pietro starred in that tournament as Genoa knocked Real Madrid out and reached the final only to lose 4-3 on penalties to Right to Dream at the AJ Bell Stadium. Shortly afterwards fath







Marco Pellegri was emotional after seeing his son, Pietro, score twice for Genoa against Lazio
Marco Pellegri ran a hand through his hair and reached for the phone inside his jacket pocket.

The 53-year-old was doing everything possible not to cry. But it ended up being too much for him, and he slumped into his seat in the Genoa dugout and let the emotion pour out.

Pellegri, the team's administrator, had just seen his son, 16-year-old Pietro, score his and the side's second goal of the night in a Serie A game against Lazio after coming on for Ricardo Centurion in the first half.

Advertisement
A dream come true for the boy's father, Marco once said that if he ever got to see Pietro play for Genoa at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris he could die happy. Consider his life fulfilled then. The pictures of Marco's sobs made headlines around the world and caused Pietro to choke up when shown to him after the game, a 3-2 defeat that condemned Genoa to their worst start in 40 years.




Suddenly it all came back to Pietro. The hours spent in the car as his dad taxied him from one game to the next. The afternoons spent standing in the wind and rain to see his boy. The young striker was overcome with emotion too. After all, this is what they had talked about all along; Pietro scoring in front of the Gradinata Nord, the stand the Genoa fans congregate in. One of their own.

The Pellegris are from Genoa. They live in Pegli, the seaside town to the west of the city where Genoa have their training ground. Marco has worked at the club for years, initially in the academy, now as team manager for the first team. His wife Marzia is from a family of Sampdoria fans. But Pietro "only ever had eyes for Genoa".

When the club were relegated to the third division in a match-fixing scandal 12 years ago, Marco Rossi, the club's talismanic captain, used to come around for dinner and play Playstation with Pellegri's boy. Rossi made 286 appearances for Genoa and remains to this day an idol of the club's fans. Pietro was only ever going to support one club: Genoa, the Grifone.

What makes his story all the more remarkable though is that, despite being so young, the best clubs in the world have been knocking on his door for years.

He could have joined Man Utd
Pellegri's landmarks
Pellegri is the joint-youngest player to have featured in a Serie A game, with Amedeo Amadei (both 15 years 280 days) Pellegri is the youngest player to score two goals in a Serie A match
Pellegri is the third-youngest scorer in Serie A after Amadei and Gianni Rivera He has played in four consecutive Serie A games, starting the last three
Beppe Marotta, the general manager of Juventus, claims he first tried to sign Pietro two years ago "when nobody" knew anything about him.

This summer Inter actually agreed to pay 60m euros (£53m) for Pietro and another of Genoa's 16-year-old stars, Eddie Salcedo, only for a mix of financial fair play and the capital controls introduced by China's government to scupper the plans of owners Suning.

And on transfer deadline day, AC Milan looked to immediately reinvest the money they got from Torino for M'Baye Niang with a move for Pietro. "But we were unsuccessful," lamented chief executive Marco Fassone.

They will all try again. Some say it is too soon to be sure of Pietro's talent and the watching world has to be cautious. But Italy's Big Three don't want to be too late in recognising it either.

Genoa owner Enrico Preziosi has been talking Pietro up for a while now. "We have the new Messi," the toy-maker boasted in 2015. "He's called Pellegri." That was the year Roma said they would send Marco Borriello Genoa's way and pay a big chunk of his wages as long as they got Pietro in return.

It was also the year Genoa participated in the Manchester United Premier Cup in Salford. Pietro starred in that tournament as Genoa knocked Real Madrid out and reached the final only to lose 4-3 on penalties to Right to Dream at the AJ Bell Stadium. Shortly afterwards fath