Mattia Destro

He made an immediate Impact, scoring the winning goal in the 67th minute in a 2–1 victory.

Destro then started playing regularly, showing the goalscoring form from earlier in his career.

Mattia Destro (born 20 March 1991) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Serie A club Empoli.

He has also featured at international level, holding eight caps for Italy.

Destro began his career with hometown club Ascoli.

In the 2004–05 season, he played in the Giovanissimi Nazionali squad, while his father Flavio was coaching the Allievi Nazionali team.

In mid-2005, he joined Inter Milan's youth system.

Destro was the top-scorer of the Giovanissimi Nazionali team in the 2005–06 season, the second top-scorer of the Allievi Nazionali team in the 2006–07 season (behind Mario Balotelli), and the second top-scorer of the Primavera team in the 2008–09 season (behind Aiman Napoli).

Destro won the league with the Allievi Nazionali team in 2008, and also played for the Primavera team – the senior youth team, scoring four goals in the league group stage; 1 in Primavera league playoff, winning 2008 Torneo di Viareggio and losing to Sampdoria in the final of the Primavera League.

Destro scored 18 goals in the 2009–10 Campionato Nazionale Primavera Group Stage and played a few club friendly matches for the first team.

Destro won the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League despite not being used in any of the matches — he had been included in the Champions League list as one of the under-21 youth products in the B list since the 2008–09 edition of the tournament.

In June 2010, La Gazzetta dello Sport reported that Inter Milan agreed a deal with Genoa to sign centre-back Andrea Ranocchia and that Destro was part of the exchange deal.

The transfer became official on 20 July 2010, when Genoa purchased a preferential option to sign Destro in a co-ownership deal in June 2010.

After the injury of Luca Toni, Destro started his first match in Serie A, against Chievo, on 12 September 2010 as the only central forward in the 3–4–3 formation chosen for the match, and scored a goal in the sixth minute of the match.

However, Genoa lost the match 1–3.

As another 50% registration rights of Ranocchia were sold to Inter in January 2011 for €12.5 million, Destro was sold to Genoa in June for €4.5 million.

That month, Genoa also signed his Inter teammate Samuele Longo in a co-ownership deal.

The two strikers became part of the exchange that led to Inter's signing of Ranocchia.

In 2011, Destro left for Serie A newcomers Siena on loan for €1.5 million with an option for a co-ownership deal.

Destro became the team's top goalscorer with 12 goals, followed by Emanuele Calaiò's 11 goals.

On 20 June 2012, Siena purchased half of Destro's registration rights from Genoa for €1.3 million.

However, after Roma formed an agreement with both Genoa and Siena, Genoa bought back Destro from Siena for €7.5 million million (€6 million cash plus half of Eugenio Lamanna) in order to complete the deal.

On 30 July 2012, Roma announced they had signed Destro from Genoa in a loan deal for €11.5 million (€8.5 million cash plus half of the rights to both Giammario Piscitella and Valerio Verre) with the option to purchase him outright for an additional €4.5 million (which meant Destro would cost Roma €16 million in total if the purchase was completed).

Destro would replace the Liverpool-bound striker Fabio Borini, whom Roma just sold for €13.3 million.

Destro made his Roma debut on 2 September 2012 in a 3–1 Serie A win away against Inter.

He scored his first goal for the Giallorossi in a 4–1 home match against Palermo on 4 November.

He also received his first red card with the club in the same match after receiving two bookings from the referee, the second of which was for taking off his shirt when celebrating his goal.

Destro played 21 Serie A matches for Roma in his first season, many in which he came on as a substitute, and scored six goals.

Roma finished a distant sixth in Serie A, but did reach the final of Coppa Italia.

Destro scored five goals en route, making him top-scorer for the tournament.

However, Lazio edged a 1–0 win over Roma in the final.

Destro had struggled with injury during his first season at Roma, and these problems continued into the 2013–14 season.

He did not make his first appearance until 8 November 2013, when he came on as a substitute early in the second half against Fiorentina.

As the season progressed, he scored twice in a 3–0 win over Sampdoria in February and a hat-trick in a 3–1 win over Cagliari in April 2014.

Controversy followed the Cagliari game, during which Destro had punched defender Davide Astori but was not punished at the time by the referee.

However, the league authorities later imposed a three-match ban on Destro (which became four matches for accumulated yellow cards).

Despite this, Destro scored 13 league goals for Roma, finishing the season as the club's top scorer and helping his side to a second-place finish in Serie A, behind Juventus.

He was ranked as one of the best strikers in Serie A. Only Sergio Aguero and Lionel Messi had a better goal-per-minute ratio than Destro across Europe's top five leagues.

Destro was the subject of intense transfer speculation during the summer of 2014, being heavily linked by the media with moves to Chelsea and Real Madrid.

VFL Wolfsburg offered €30 million, which was rejected by Roma choosing to keep him.