For many inside the Italian game, Retegui is the best centre-forward the country has.
But Vieri told Sportweek: "He's very good in the box. He knows how to free himself, he manages to be in the right place at the right time. This is a huge quality. He's always there to hit the goal, on every rebound, on every rebound, he's there. In Venice he scored a very beautiful and difficult goal, beating the goalkeeper with the 'chip'. It means that he doesn't just know how to score from a few meters away, like an opportunist, but he's also gifted from a technical point of view, he has a good foot.
"And then he's someone who doesn't just score goals: he's a worker, he tries to give a hand to the team. In addition, he's shown that he's ready on a physical and mental level: for the first time in his career he's playing three times a week, league-Champions League-league, and he's coping very well with the impact of the new reality. In short, everything good, but if you ask me for an overall grade based on his current level as a footballer, I wouldn't go beyond 7."
Vieri continued: "Before celebrating him, however, I want to wait for him to confirm himself. It would be too easy to give him a very high rating for what he is doing at the moment, but I want to see him all this year, in which I say he will score at least 20 goals, but especially next year. How many forwards reach double figures in a tournament, only to then scale back the following one?
"The coming season will be the decisive one for Retegui to demonstrate that he is a striker of great depth. If he can confirm the goal haul that I think he will reach this year, he will be a market man worth 60-70 million, and teams like Manchester United or PSG could focus on him, who at the moment need a centre forward."
One last warning, however: "Today football, like everything else, goes fast. Too fast. It's enough for someone to score a few goals and people talk about him as a great striker, because people are hungry for top-class strikers, given that there are very few of them around. But if Rome wasn't built in a day, the same goes for a striker. Who must be evaluated over the long term, "weighing" the goals he scores: how many and against which teams, because not all goals are the same."