Inter Milan Scudetto hero Lautaro is now the world's THIRD best forward

Carlo Garganese

• Updated: 22 Apr 2024 21:59 BST
• 4 min read

Inter Milan’s Scudetto hero Lautaro Martinez is now the third best forward in the world, according to SciSports.

Lautaro has played a key role in Inter storming to the Serie A title this season.

The Nerazzurri clinched their 20th Scudetto by beating rivals AC Milan 2-1 in the Milan Derby on April 22.

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Lautaro has enjoyed the best individual season of his career, scoring a stunning 23 goals in 29 Serie A games.

He is almost certain to be crowned as Serie A Capocannoniere as the league’s top scorer. Dusan Vlahovic of Juventus is the league’s second top scorer and well adrift on 15 goals.

Lautaro now has a hugely impressive 128 goals in 277 games since joining Inter from Racing in 2018.

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He has shown himself to be a very complete attacker, able to score and create goals equally well. In total he has 42 assists in his time at Inter, taking his total goal contributions to 170.

He is now able to play as both a first striker and second striker in a front two, and he is no longer the patchy performer he was earlier in his Inter career.

Lautaro has without doubt established himself as the best attacker in Serie A but, according to SciSports' special SciSkill statistical model, the Argentine is now the third best forward in the world.

The Top 10 forwards in the world

Man City’s Erling Haaland is rated as the best with a SciSkill score of 139.3, followed by Arsenal’s Gabriel Jesus in second with 133.9 and Lautaro in third with 126.2.

In fourth is Bayern Munich star Harry Kane on 122.0 and completing the top five is Man City’s Julian Alvarez on 121.5.

Also in the top 10 are Robert Lewandowski, Thomas Muller, Ollie Watkins, Son Heung-Min and Timo Werner.

The 26-year-old Lautaro has now played a key role in two Inter Scudetti, also winning the title in 2021 under Antonio Conte.

If there is one area that Lautaro does need to improve in order to become hopefully the best in the world, it is his performance in big global tournaments.

He has failed until now to replicate his Serie A form in the Champions League, and this season scored just twice in eight games as Inter were knocked out in the last-16 on penalties - Lautaro missing the crucial spot-kick against Atletico Madrid.

The attacker struggled at the 2022 World Cup, despite Argentina winning the trophy.

After missing a host of chances in the first two games against Saudi Arabia and Mexico, he was dropped and only appeared as a substitute for the rest of the tournament.

Lautaro failed to score a goal at the World Cup, although he did find the net in penalty shootouts.

This is where Lautaro needs to improve moving forward but for now, he will be congratulating himself on leading Inter to the Scudetto.