The Camino de Santiago. A year of goals and grit: "It could be worth 50 million"

The tower of Marathon tattooed on his calf, the dedication to his family with tears after the goal that crushed Atalanta and now the pursuit of new personal and team records. The point is that while Santiago Castro he cries with emotion in Casteldebole who a year ago decided to buy him by pouring 12 million into the coffers of the Velez Today he sports a toothy smile.

How much is Castro worth in Vincenzo Italiano's game system? An inestimable value and centrality that (even just thinking about it in the summer seemed like blasphemy) halfway through the course is already comparable to that which Joshua Zirkzee had in the last Bologna by Motta. Perhaps, in perspective, it is even higher. The numbers say that from August to today 'Santi' has scored 31 goals and 8 assists in 7 official matches. To stick to Serie A alone, the goals scored by the twenty-year-old Argentine are 6. Question: how many footballers born from 2004 onwards in Europe have scored a higher number of goals in their respective leagues? At 7 are the English Jamie Gittens of Borussia Dortmund (who Bologna faced and beat in the Champions League) and the Brazilian Andrey Santos of Strasbourg. And following him is him, 'Toto' Castro.

It is normal that his economic evaluation has also skyrocketed in the meantime. And here we return to the initial question: how much is Castro's price tag worth today? It is a purely theoretical discussion, to be kept away from the pitchfork, because there is no reason to believe that a club that has travelled so many kilometres to return to see the stars decides to deprive itself of one of its most representative players. But the Premier League he is not afraid of the 'monster' ratings and also theInter, to stay in the home garden, has been keeping an eye on Castro for months. Cies, a global football observatory that analyses and evaluates the performances of footballers from five continents, after his latest exploits attributes him a market value that fluctuates between 42 and 55 million. Even if we want to stay on the lower end of the range, we are talking about a value potentially quadrupled compared to the investment made by the rossoblù club a year ago.

Yes, because just a year ago Castro became a Bologna player. The push and pull with Velez was exhausting and Santiago's arrival in Italy was extended due to his commitments with Argentina's pre-Olympic team. His debut at the Dall'Ara as a spectator dates back to February 23, when the rossoblù defeated Verona on the field and Santi in the stands was handing out autographs and smiles while gorging himself on videos and selfies. Who knows if that night Castro had a premonition that one day those people would be at his feet and would pay him a huge 'thank you', in Bergamo, for a very important goal that he reciprocated with an unrestrained celebration, with a spectacular somersault fortunately without consequences. His tears of joy followed. And the dazzling smiles of Fenucci, Sartori and Di Vaio, who today know they have a treasure in their safe.