If Erling Haaland plays five,
Martín Cauteruccio
is not far behind and fights head to head with the fearsome Manchester City striker.
The former
Independiente
and San Lorenzo is living a 2024 like a movie, and on Tuesday night he scored another hat trick against Always Ready (his fourth this year), in the qualifying phase of the Copa Libertadores, to reach a shocking figure:
17 goals in 7 games
.
Football gives revenge for the scorer erased by Carlos Tévez a few months ago and in conflict with Rojo, who took his gunpowder to League 1 in Peru.
The bad?
His streak could not prevent his team from falling in the round-trip aggregate against
Always Ready
(6-1 in Bolivia and 3-1 in Lima), being eliminated from the Libertadores.
What about Caute is surprising.
Because he is 36 years old and because, when he seemed to start the final stretch of his career, he regains his strength and surpasses world-class scorers such as
Erling Haaland
,
Mbappé or
Lautaro Martínez
himself
who, despite having 22 goals and being the top scorer of the Inter in Serie A, this year they only scored 7 goals.
Cauteruccion not only beats those who put it the most in the world, but also several teams, including Independiente itself.
So far in 2024, in the same number of games for the League Cup,
Rojo has scored just five goals
, all distributed among five players: Ayrton Costa, Joaquín Laso, Federico Mancuello, Gabriel Neves and Lucas González.
A fact that does not stop making noise in Avellaneda
.
Martín Cauteruccio arrived at Sporting Cristal after a controversial departure from Carlos Tevez's Independiente.
On date 1 of the local tournament against ADT he debuted with a hattrick, being the figure of his team and establishing himself as number 9 of the beer team.
Martín Cauteruccio's shirt in Sporting Cristal of Peru/ Account X: Martín Cauteruccio
On the
second date he repeated his good performance with two goals against Boys
, then a double against Cienciano and again in triplicate on date 3 against Chankas, he also scored during the week, for the Copa Libertadores he did the honor against Always Ready, in the 1-6 defeat at 4,083 meters above sea level of Villa Ingenio in El Alto.
On the last date of the Inca League, he surprised with another hattrick, being the cover at the local level and trending on social networks.
This Tuesday history repeated itself, but she was not enough to support her team in the top continental club tournament.
Cauteruccio's statistics show that his signing to Sporting Cristal is a complete success;
The club had had problems in recent seasons finding a striker and the lack of goals was the Achilles heel in the team led by Brazilian Ederson Moreira.
The last 9 that had an acceptable performance was Emanuel Herrera.
However, what is most striking is that his numbers position him as first in the ranking of scorers in the world in 2024. His average is 2.42 goals per game and obviously "the best reinforcement of the year" for the Peruvian press.
Cauteruccio's time at San Lorenzo was the
highlight
of his career
: he scored 42 goals in 114 games played and became champion of the Copa Libertadores in 2014. He was also champion in Cruz Azul in the 2018-2019 season, where he was the highest scorer in the Apertura Tournament, and in December 2022 he arranged his arrival at Independiente.
Caute played
38 games and scored 12 goals
for Rojo.
After a good first stage, he contracted salmonella and was without training for several weeks.
From then on, he no longer had a chance in El Rojo.
The clearest example of what his second half was like is that his last goal was in July 2023, in a 1-0 draw against Huracán.
The footballer's departure ended in conflict and now he was sued by Independiente for
five million dollars
for having signed freely with Sporting Cristal.
"The player left declaring himself fired for lack of payment, which did not happen, Independiente complied. Then, we will initiate legal action," said the general secretary of Independiente.
In the last few hours, while breaking networks in Peru, the forward responded to Independiente's claim and demands compensation of 210 million pesos, and the issue will have to be decided in court.