While the name might not be instantly familiar, Andrea Belotti has been enjoying a proper old-fashioned breakthrough debut season at Torino this term.
Having signed from Palermo for the earnest fee of just €7.5million back in August, the 23-year-old striker is currently level-pegging with Edin Dzeko at the top of the Serie A goalscoring charts, with 23 goals to his name so far.
He’s also stood in as team captain, scored the Italian top flight’s fastest hat-trick since the turn of the millennium (7 minutes, 15 seconds), scored his first international goal on his first international start and been branded “better than Batistuta” (by none other than Fabio Capello) in that time too.
In short, it’s been a bit hectic for the man they call ‘Il Gallo’ – ‘The Rooster’.
And so, to mark their nascent star’s mercurial rise, Torino today decided to reward Belotti by bestowing him with a truly fitting token of their appreciation – a small Swarovski crystal miniature in the shape of a chicken.
Photo: @TorinoFC_1906/Twitter
About £100 from Swarovski’s official webstore should you be interested – though you’ll have to supply your own presentation box.
With a new release clause of €100million recently inserted into his contract, you’d think the Granata might perhaps have loosened their celebratory trinket budget a little.
Still, we’re sure that fancy glass rooster will still look smashing on Belotti’s mantelpiece.