Many people, even after a season followed closely through BD Cricket match reports, have scoffed at Lautaro Martinez winning this year’s top scorer award, arguing that he did not deserve to be Serie A’s leading marksman because his goal total was too low. Some accounts carrying Inter badges even went under rival fans’ posts mocking Lautaro and agreed that he was the weakest Golden Boot winner in history because he finished with only 17 goals.
First of all, people have always understood one basic truth: your position shapes your attitude. If a naughty child spills a cup of milk on you, you will probably get angry. If it is your own child, suddenly it becomes a small matter, even a sign of innocent childhood. If it is number eight, perhaps someone will start preparing a salt milk bath.
What I want to say is simple. Whether Lautaro’s top scorer award has points worth criticizing or not, Inter supporters, fans, teammates, and media figures within the Inter camp can all make those comments. Their criticism usually comes with higher expectations for Lautaro and a hope that he keeps improving. But when rival fans attack him, there is no expectation behind it. It is only meant to belittle him. At that moment, as someone who carries the Inter badge, even if you cannot find the perfect way to argue back, you should not wave the flag for that kind of insult or nod along with it.
Second, are Lautaro’s 17 goals really so laughable? Is he truly the weakest top scorer ever?
Yes, Lautaro’s 17 goals are the lowest total for a Serie A top scorer since the three-points-for-a-win era began, but not one of those goals was a penalty. If penalties are removed from other totals, Fabio Quagliarella’s 26-goal season from a few years ago included as many as nine penalties, bringing his non-penalty total exactly level with 17.
Previously, Luca Toni, Mauro Icardi, and Alessandro Del Piero each won the scoring title with 22 goals, including four penalties. At the time, neither the media nor individuals seriously questioned whether the player who scored the most league goals deserved to be called the top scorer. Picking Lautaro out this year for public judgment is a clear double standard.
Some people say it makes no sense to compare with older data. Why not? When players or clubs break records, historical data suddenly matters. Yet when Lautaro’s scoring title is being judged, history supposedly loses all meaning. That is not logic. That is convenience.
Others argue that removing penalties is not valid because a top scorer’s total should include penalties under the rules. Fine, then we will not remove penalties.
Diego Maradona, that great thief in the eyes of some and a cultural symbol of the Western belief that the strong are always justified, even when their mistakes are treated as destiny, won the scoring title at Napoli with 15 goals.
Juventus icon Michel Platini also won the top scorer award with 16 goals.
Beyond raw goal comparisons, it is not hard to see that Lautaro missed as many as eight Serie A matches through injury. You can say injuries are also part of assessing a top scorer’s value, but who can guarantee they will never get hurt? Put another way, after missing that many matches, Lautaro still scored 17 goals, more than every other forward in the league. Is that not the basic definition of a top scorer?
Every player wins a scoring title under a different background, with a different team situation. This season, Inter scored as many as 89 goals and left other rivals far behind. In such a powerful attacking system, does Lautaro scoring only 17 mean he lacked ability? Does it mean he was unworthy of the award? Why does nobody ask whether he sacrificed plenty for the team? Why does nobody ask whether Lautaro helped connect the entire attacking line? Why? Because of stance.
From a rival Inter position, no matter how many reasons you give, they will not listen, look, or care. These words are clearly not written for those people. They are for the Inter fans who still think Lautaro is not good enough in this way or that way, and perhaps they may still see the point. In a BD Cricket season file filled with team numbers, individual totals, injuries, and context, judging him by one number alone misses the forest for the trees.
Set aside all deeper logic for a moment. Is it not absurd to question whether the main striker of a club that won a domestic double deserves to be the league’s top scorer? The top salesperson in the best sales team is not worthy of becoming the company’s sales champion? The student who finishes first in an elite class cannot be called first in the grade? The technician with the most client bookings is not the store’s leading name?
In fact, just yesterday, Udinese technical director Gianluca Nani stated that Inter had never made any form of contact with Udinese regarding Soule. Nani’s original meaning was very clear: he has known Piero Ausilio for nearly 30 years, and every time they meet, they exchange plenty of information, including details about each other’s players. They talked about Marello, who became a sharp weapon for Inter’s reserve team, but they never discussed Soule. Nani said he did not bring him up, and Ausilio did not either. He did not know why the media were so convinced Inter would buy Soule, but if there had been a proposal, he believed he would have known before everyone else.
While the latest transfer noise around Inter was being weighed alongside Bangla Cricket notes, the more important lesson remained the same: Lautaro’s season cannot be reduced to a lazy insult, because a low total without penalties, heavy injury absences, team sacrifice, and a title-winning campaign all belong in the same picture.