From Wiki
Club career
Born in
Rosario,
Argentina, by Italian parents, Forestieri's career began in 2003 with
Newell's Old Boys. Later on that year, when he was just 13,
Boca Juniors bought Forestieri for $50,000. During his time at Boca, Forestieri continued to develop as a player and was earning comparisons to
Asmoah Gyan. With his parents returning home, Forestieri left Boca to join
Genoa at the age of 16.
Genoa
In January 2006, Genoa signed Forestieri on a three-year contract. Boca tried to keep the young player, but failed to do so.
[2] In March, Boca contested the regularity of the transfer and, refusing a €300,000 indemnification from Genoa, the Argentine club submitted the case to the
AFA.
[3] That summer he played some friendly matches with
Genoa, and in one of them
Torino president
Urbano Cairo saw Forestieri in action and offered €500,000 for him, but Genoa refused.
[4]
On 25 July 2007,
Siena announced that they had signed Forestieri from Genoa in a co-ownership deal,
[6] for €1.7 million,
[7] to compensate the transfer debt to Siena involving the transfers of
Andrea Masiello and
Abdoulay Konko to Genoa.
[8] He made his
Serie A debut on 26 September, coming off the bench in a match against
Atalanta. On 13 January 2008, Forestieri scored his first goal for Siena after being brought on as a substitute against
Internazionale in a 3–2 loss.
On 25 June 2008, Genoa acquired the entirety of his transfer rights for €4.5 million (with Siena acquiring half of
Manuel Coppola for €1.5 million
[9] and the full rights of
Abdelkader Ghezzal for €3.5 million
[10]), successively loaning him out to Siena for another season,
[11] but in the first part of the season with coach
Giampaolo he played only in two games.
In January 2009, he was loaned to
Vicenza in Serie B, where he scored 5 goals in 19 appearances.
Udinese
In July 2009 Forestieri agreed for a move to
La Liga, joining
Málaga on loan from Genoa and Udinese.
[12] He was sold to Udinese Calcio in co-ownership deal on 28 July, for €1.5million.
[13] He scored his only goal for the club on 20 December 2009 in 2–1 win against
Mallorca.
In summer 2010 he failed to find a new club and stayed at Udinese's youth team. Udinese held some club friendlies for players pending to leave, credited the team as
Udinese B. He failed to leave the club and played for Udinese's
Primavera youth team.
In January 2011 he had been sent to Serie B club
Empoli.
[14][15]
On 15 July 2011 he was signed by newly relegated
Serie B team
Bari along with
Zdeněk Zlámal.,
[16] which Udinese bought him outright from Genoa on 7 July. He would be a potential replacement of
Paulo Vitor Barreto who was bought back by Udinese in June.
Watford
On 31 August 2012,
Watford signed Fernando Forestieri on loan from Udinese. He scored his first goal against
Huddersfield Town on 29 September and then got sent off three days later against
Charlton Athletic. Watford goalkeeper
Manuel Almunia has claimed to see likenesses to
Lionel Messi and says he has a bright future, but must avoid getting involved with referees.
[17] Forestieri scored his second Watford goal against
Leicester City in November which proved to be the decider as Watford emerged as 2–1 winners. Forestieri became an instant hero at Vicarage Road and was nicknamed Fessi by the Watford faithful – again a reference of his likeness to his Argentine compatriot Lionel Messi.
On Monday 14 January 2013, the striker signed a permanent five-and-a-half-year deal with the club. Forestieri scored his first goals as a permanent Watford player against
Sheffield Wednesday on 5 March 2013 – netting a brace at Vicarage Road in an emotional 2–1 win where Forestieri was spotted crying and kissing the Watford badge after the final whistle, and three weeks later Forestieri scored another brace, this time against
Burnley on 29 March 2013.
[18]
Sheffield Wednesday
After a below par 2014-2015 season (despite winning promotion to
Premier League) with
Watford, scoring only 5 goals in 25 games, mixed with the combination of constant manager changes, Fernando Forestieri found himself sliding down the pecking order at
Vicarage Road Forestieri found himself subject to immense interest from clubs in the
Championship including
Leeds,
reading and
Sheffield Wednesday. On 29 August 2015
Sheffield Wednesday completed the signing of Fernando Forestieri on a four-year deal, for an undisclosed fee believed to be around £3,000,000. Becoming the 14th summer signing by
The Owls, and the 3rd signing to move from
Vicarage Road to
Hillsborough along with former Hornets
Lewis McGugan and
Daniel Pudil as head coach
Carlos Carvalhal and chairman
Dejphon Chansiri looked set to continue their goal of revolutionising
Sheffield Wednesday.
