Mauro Icardi

Early career

Icardi began his football career with Vecindario in Gran Canaria, and scored over 50 goals in their youth categories. In 2007, he was disputed over by Barcelona and Real Madrid, after offers from Valencia, Sevilla, Espanyol, Deportivo La Coruña, Arsenal and Liverpool. Barcelona won the race for Icardi, and signed with him until 2013.

FC Barcelona

Icardi joined the Catalan club at the start of 2008–09 season and was included on the U-17 team. He was promoted to the U-19 team the following season before joining Sampdoria on loan in January 2011. Icardi later stated that leaving Barcelona was not a bad decision, and that he was convinced that his decision was the right one.

Sampdoria

On 11 January 2011, Sampdoria confirmed Icardi had signed with the club on loan until the end of the season. After a successful six-month loan for la Samp, scoring 13 goals in 19 games with the Primavera team, the Italian side utilised the option to buy Icardi for €400,000 in July, signing a three-year deal. In 2011–12 season, he scored 19 goals in the reserve league Group A, as the joint-third topscorer of the league along with Gonzalo Barreto of Group C. On 12 May 2012, he made his first-team debut, against Juve Stabia, after coming off the bench to replace Bruno Fornaroli in the 75th minute of the match. Ten minutes later, Icardi scored his first professional goal to win the match 2–1 for Sampdoria. On 26 September, he made his Serie A debut for…

Youth

In April 2012, Icardi received a call-up from Italy under-19 squad to play in the friendly against England, but the player refused to accept the invitation as he wanted to play for Argentina. His wish was fulfilled on 26 July where he was summoned by Argentina under-20 coach Marcelo Trobbiani to play in the friendly against Germany, in which he made his debut on 14 August at Commerzbank-Arena, and the L'Alcúdia Tournament, held in Valencia, Spain. Icardi scored his first goal with Argentina U20 on 19 August in a 2–0 win over Japan, which was followed by another two in the 2–1 win against Turkey three days later. The tournament ended in conquest, as Icardi was the top scorer with three goals.

Senior

Following Italy national football team manager Cesare Prandelli's interest in Icardi's performances, in February 2013, Icardi stated his wish to play for the Argentina senior team, despite also being eligible to play for Italy, saying: "I'm very grateful to Italian football for the opportunity it has given me, I'd also like to thank Prandelli for the nice words he expressed about me. But I have to be honest and sincere – I'm Argentine, I feel Argentine, and I've always dreamed of wearing the shirt of my nation. To actually do that would be the maximum for me." On 15 October 2013, he played his first game for the main squad, coming on as an 82nd-minute substitute for Augusto Fernández in a 2–3 FIFA World Cup qualifier loss away to Uruguay. In April 2016,…

Icardi was born in Rosario, Argentina and moved to Canary Islands when he was nine. He is of partial Italian origin through his paternal ancestors named Icardi from Piedmont and Da Mezan from Venice. He has an Italian passport.

Icardi married Argentine media personality Wanda Nara in 2014. Nara was married to Icardi's former Sampdoria teammate Maxi López, but the couple broke up after her extramarital affair with Icardi was exposed. Nara and López began divorce proceedings in December 2013. Nara and Icardi married on 27 May, not long after her divorce from López was finalised, in a small ceremony in Buenos Aires. Icardi and Nara have two daughters: Francesca, born on 19 January 2015, and Isabella, born on 27 October 2016. Both were born in Milan. Icardi's marriage to Nara provoked animosity against him in Argentina, making him a regular target in Argentinian tabloids. It was argued the animosity towards him was an important factor against Icardi being called to the national team. Prospective calls were heavily criticized by sporting figures, including Diego Maradona, who had an infamous social media exchanges with Icardi regarding his marriage to Nara in 2017. During an April 2014 Serie A match between Sampdoria and Inter, López notably refused to shake Icardi's hand, leading Argentinian press to dub games between the pair as the "Wanda derby". Two years later, López again refused to shake Icardi's hand during a Serie A match against Torino. On 6 December 2015, Icardi was robbed of his €39,000 Hublot watch after Inter's 1–0 home win over Genoa. On 11 October 2016, the release of Icardi's autobiography, Sempre Avanti (Always Forward), caused controversy for a passage offending some Inter fans,…