Fernando Forestieri makes Oxford City debut after career playing Messi, Ronaldo and Ibrahimovic
Fernando Forestieri made his debut for Oxford City after coming off the bench in a National League North fixture at the Hebburn Sports and Social Ground in Tyne & Wear on a Saturday afternoon in October. Oxford City were 3-0 ahead when the Argentine, wearing number 15, was introduced in the 81st minute in front of 873 spectators.
Forestieri, 36, joins a side nicknamed the Hoops who have won seven of their last 11 matches and sit third in the National League North. His arrival follows a long professional career that has taken him from Argentina to senior football in Italy and Spain and included appearances against some of the game's most recognisable players.
He recalled facing Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic and said: "It was like a tennis match, the ball going one way one second, then the other way the next." Forestieri also noted the scale of some past fixtures, having played in front of 72,000 fans at Real Madrid's Bernabeu.
Forestieri described encountering Barcelona, Messi and Ibrahimovic while playing for Malaga in Spain's top flight in 2009-10, and said he shared the same pitch with Ronaldo "as recently as five years ago" when Juventus visited Udinese in Serie A. His CV includes scoring against Inter Milan for Siena in 2008, and a photograph shows him aged 18 in action for Siena against AC Milan's Andrea Pirlo in 2008.
He outlined his route back to English football, saying he trained with the PFA as part of their pre-season programme for players without a club before receiving a call from Oxford City assistant manager Paul Robinson. Forestieri explained the club link: "Robbo said: 'why you don't come here to help us? We'll help you to become fit'," and added: "For me this is a big change. But I'm so happy to be at Oxford City. They are an ambitious club and I want to help them as much as I can."
Forestieri spoke about his upbringing in Rosario, where he idolised Diego Maradona, and said: "I was born poor, born with nothing. I lived with my mum and dad and two brothers. The five of us slept in one room." He paid tribute to Maradona on the back of his Udinese shirt after the Argentine's death in 2020 and recalled: "Growing up in Argentina, everyone pretended to be Diego. He was a hero to everyone. On every corner of every street someone painted his face on a wall."
Personal details he provided include that he was part of Newell's Old Boys and Boca Juniors academies, moved to Italy at 16 and made his senior debut for Genoa, and that he qualified to play for Italy through his grandfather and represented the Azzurri at youth level. He said he has had recent spells in Malaysia and Cyprus and returned to England after the birth of his third son, Luciano.
Forestieri lives in north London with his wife, Andria, and their sons Santiago, aged nine, and Maximiliano, aged six, and is taking his coaching badges. He told BBC Sport: "I still have passion for football. Whenever I'm walking in the park with Santiago and we see someone playing football, we stop and join in. That's how much I still love football." He added: "You need to listen to your body when you reach 36," and: "But I'm lucky to be still playing and that a club still wants me to play for them."
Oxford City host Leicester City in the first round of the FA Cup on Friday, with the tie scheduled for 19:45 GMT and expected to attract a 3,500 sell-out crowd. After that money-spinning fixture, Oxford City travel to the north-east to face Darlington in a league match next Tuesday.
