James Garrett looks at the different parts of the world where past and present Watford players and managers have originated from. This time, it's Argentina...

Cristian Battocchio
Fernando Forestieri
Roberto Pereyra
Ignacio Pussetto
Mauro Zárate

Watford had never signed any Argentinian players before 2012.

It was during that summer that the club signed virtually a new squad, with many arrivals on loan from Udinese, and embarked on what was to be one of the most memorable seasons we have ever enjoyed.

Two of those players had left Argentina as teenagers to try and pursue a career in Europe. Fernando Forestieri was a maverick forward and Cristian Battocchio was an all-action midfielder.

It didn’t take too long for the pair to be playing first-team football and impressing the home fans. Forestieri was somewhat of an enigma who could do the most amazing things with a football.

There were plenty of ups for the players in the first year. Forestieri scored the winner at home to Leicester City in the league and scored three in two matches against Sheffield Wednesday as he helped the Hornets move into the play-off spots after a slow start to the Championship season.

Battocchio didn’t get as much game time until the Christmas period that year but came in and gave the team much-needed energy.

    His first Watford goal was memorable although it was only a neat close-range finish against Huddersfield. It came after 22 Watford passes and has to be a contender for the best team goal ever scored by the Golden Boys.

Forestieri had endeared himself to the fans for embracing his new club and town and being way more consistent in the second half of the season.

Both players featured in the famous play-off semi-final match against Leicester and it was of course Forestieri’s cross for Jonathan Hogg’s cushioned header which set-up Troy Deeney for his iconic goal.

Battocchio got more of a run in the side during his second season as Almen Abdi was forced to miss much of the campaign. The Hornets, however, under-performed and finished 13th.

Forestieri was in and out of the team all season, largely due to the outrageous striking options the team had with Deeney, Matěj Vydra and the newly signed Odion Ighalo all scoring goals for fun.

For Battocchio, it was clear early on that new head coach Beppe Sannino was not a fan of him so he went to play for a season on loan in Serie B. Since then, Battocchio has played in France, Israel, Mexico, Greece, Japan and India.

Forestieri didn’t get the chance to play in the Premier League after the Hornets’ promotion in 2015 and joined Sheffield Wednesday. He went on to play well there over four seasons before a return to Udinese during the COVID-19 pandemic. After a couple of seasons playing in Serie A, he made a surprise move to the Malaysian Super League.

There is no doubt that the best Argentinian player to represent the Hornets is maybe one of the best ever to play for the club.

    On his day, Roberto Pereyra made the game look easy and the attacking midfielder could glide past opponents and pick out passes which not many others could see. When he joined from Juventus he made an impressive debut at West Ham and very nearly scored a wonder goal.

He did score a screamer against Leicester but damaged his ACL away to Man City, meaning months out of the game. It took him a while to get back to his level again but it was in the 2018/19 campaign under Javi Gracia where we saw the best of him.

He scored two fantastic goals at the start of the season against Brighton and then the winner against Crystal Palace in the next home game.

He then scored another good goal in an away win at Wolves before a superb individual strike against Huddersfield. At the time, early form had taken Watford into the top seven of the Premier League.

Pereyra also had a famous ‘what if’ moment in the first 10 minutes of the 2019 FA Cup final when Man City keeper Ederson saved his one-on-one when the score was still 0-0.

When the Hornets got relegated on the last day of the prolonged COVID campaign, it was clear Pereyra was not going to stay and he left for Serie A and Udinese.

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