LifeBogger presents the Full Story of a Football Genius best known by the Nickname; ‘o cañito’.
Our version of Mauro Icardi’s Biography Facts, including his Childhood Story, brings you a full account of notable events from his childhood time to the moment he became famous.
The analysis of the Argentine soccer star involves his life story before fame, family life and many little-known facts about him.
Yes, everyone knows about his goal-scoring abilities, but not many fans have read Mauro Icardi’s biography story, which is quite interesting. Now, without further ado, let us begin.
Mauro Icardi Childhood Story – Early Life and Family Background:
For Biography starters, Mauro Emanuel Icardi Rivero was born on the 19th day of February 1993 in Rosario, province of Santa Fe, Argentina, to his Mother, Analia Rivero, and Father, Juan Icardi.
The striker was born to a family of immigrants who migrated from Argentina to Spain. In 2001 Mauro Icardi’s family was forced to migrate to Spain because his father couldn’t find a job in Argentina.
Early on, the Mauro Icardi family decided to live in the Canary Islands, located at the coast of northwestern Africa. There, his dad found a job as a restaurant manager.
Mauro, as a boy, wasn’t very interested in taking up football as a profession. In fact, it was his father who wanted him to play the game.
Juan Icardi, Mauro’s father, had his career prematurely cut off. However, he wanted his son to achieve what he couldn’t.
He was always used to shouting at his son…‘ Mauro..You must succeed where I failed. Its a must.”
Mauro Icardi Biography – Career Start:
Because of his dad’s great push, young Mauro was forced to start playing soccer when he was just five years old in Sarratea, a juvenile team in the north of Argentina.
Little did he know it was actually his calling to destiny.
Playing for the Spanish Unión Deportiva Vecindario team, in Las Palmas, little Mauro scored more than 500 goals between 2002 and 2008 and, even if it’s not a world-famous top team, such a performance gets a lot of top teams’ headhunters and managers’ attention.
Since his childhood, he’s seen a lot of things, but he’s always loved playing soccer. “No matter where he played, he always scored,” says Juan Carlos, his father.
After analysing many opportunities, the Icardi family decided that Barcelona’s cantera was the best option, allowing Icardi to continue his studies and grow at a personal level.
In Barcelona youth academy, he perfected his technique and with 18 goals, he helped the Juvenil B win the title.
Just as he is used to making quick decisions on the field, with the same speed in 2011, he decided that Pep Guardiola’s tactic ideas in the main team didn’t suit his game.
The truth is, there is no classic number nine role. Because of that, he took a big chance once again:
Icardi left Barcelona’s safe and global status for a second-division (at the time) Italian football team.
He was sold to Sampdoria with a 400.000 euros buying option. He reached promotion to Serie A in just six months, playing only 79 minutes and scoring his first Italian goal.
Mauro Icardi Biography Facts – Rising to Fame:
He first played as a regular in Serie A with Sampdoria.
One day, while Sampdoria was down one goal and missing one man since 30′ in the first half, Mauro scored twice, changing the match’s history and letting the world know a true jewel was born. It was in that season that Mauro got popular, earning a stable role in the team.
Several other teams developed an interest in him just as happened in 2008 when Barcellona bought him from Las Palmas.
The winning team was Internazionale di Milano, who paid 13 million euros for the player.
Mauro Icardi Family Life:
First off, Mauro Icardi came from a poor family background. Now, let’s use this section to tell you facts about the Icardi household.
About Mauro Icardi’s Father:
His dad, Juan Carlos Icard, was a professional butcher who loves managing restaurants asides from doing his butchering job to providing for his family, especially his son in the early part of his career.
Presently, he is separated from his much younger wife, Analia Rivero. When they separated, Juan Carlos Icard returned to Rosario, where he lives next to his youngest son, Guido Icardi, who takes very good care of him.
About Mauro Icardi’s Mother:
Mauro Icardi’s mother, Analia Rivero, is young and very beautiful. She gave birth to her son at the age of 17. Mauro is currently 24, and his mother is 41 at the time of writing.
About Mauro Icardi’s Brother:
Mauro Icardi’s brother is Guido Icardi.
He is one who likes to get together with his brother and supports him whether he makes good or bad decisions. Guido currently lives in Rosario, where he takes good care of his parents.
However, it pained him that his brother didn’t care much as he did for him. In his words, “Mauro does not have so much relationship with me as I do with him.
But I think he loves me as a brother. I would love to meet Francesca, his daughter and tell him I am his uncle. Mauro has a very busy life both off and on the pitch.”
About Mauro Icardi’s Sister:
Ivana Icardi is Mauro Icardi’s sister. She was born on 2 June 1995. She is a proud supporter of her brother’s career.
She is a lover of her exotic pet: a grey bunny rabbit whom she names Calvin. Ivana Icardi carries it everywhere she goes. She also loves her boyfriend, Luifa Galesio, as she tags him along with Calvin in her social media post below.
Ivana has once been a participator in the popular Big Brother adventure reality show in Argentina.
The Mauro Icardi Maxi Lopez Story – Stealing Wanda Nara:
Mauro’s off-the-pitch life has come under criticism in recent years. He has lived a controversial marital relationship with Wanda Nara, who is the former wife of his good friend and former teammate Maxi Lopez.
The love triangle between the two players and Argentinian WAG Nara was exposed in November 2013 when it was revealed Icardi had made moves on his former friend’s wife as their marriage fell apart.
The Inter Milan forward took to Twitter to declare:
‘I love you [Wanda Nara], it will never be easy to say what I feel, because I discovered that those two words (‘I love you’ = ‘te amo’ in Spanish) carry with them one feeling without limits!’
The tweet coincided with an interview given by Nara released by Revista People, in which the model revealed:
‘It’s been three months since my husband had sex. Maxi has neglected me. Although I’ve been living in luxury, I am also living with hidden pain.
‘I think the time has passed for me to save my family. I will not fight for the money, because he knows me.’
The pair have since become renowned for posting almost daily declarations of their love over social media as well as numerous ‘selfie’ pictures.
The wedding took place in Buenos Aires in front of just 12 relatives (and the groom wore jeans).
Nara ditched Icardi’s former teammate and good friend Maxi Lopez in order to start a fling with the 23-year-old in 2013. Now he is looking after Lopez’s three children.
Lopez, who has three children with Nara during their marriage, later refused to shake Icardi’s hand when Inter Milan faced his team, Torino.
It all began with an iPad:
In Icardi’s book, he revealed that Nara first got in contact with him whilst she was still married to his best friend.
It reads: “The day before I left for a friendly tour in the US, I got a message from Wanda.
“I was surprised because I usually spoke with Maxi, not with her. She asked me if I could buy a new iPad in the US, it wasn’t available yet in Italy at that time.
“That episode, however, made me think. Did Wanda really want that tablet, or was she seeking an excuse to get in touch with me?
“When I came back to Milan, one of the first things I did was to get reacquainted with Wanda. As I had to hand her the new iPad, that would have been the perfect excuse.
“We texted many times, and it was at that time that we started talking about us a bit more freely.
She wrote to me: ‘Mauro, we [Maxi Lopez and her] are going for a ride to the Aeolian Islands with Gonzalo Bergessio and his wife. Why don’t you come with us?’
“Of course I wanted to. While I was alone on the second floor of the boat, lying on the couch and listen to a bit of reggae, Wanda all of a sudden came and sat beside me, without any embarrassment. At that time her relationship with Maxi Lopez was ending.”
The rest, as they say, is now history.
Moving on:
Nara is now one of the most powerful women in Italian football and is Icardi’s agent. Wanda and Icardi don’t go unnoticed very often when they head out on the town.
She was the brains behind securing Icardi, his second Inter contract, which includes a huge £98 million release clause.
An unforgettable period came for Mauro Icardi when Nara put to birth, his first child of his own.
With his personal record for goals in Serie A in addition to being a father for the first time with the arrival of his precious daughter Francesca, Inter Channel took the opportunity to speak with the Inter striker:
“The birth of Francesca is a great joy, it was all beautiful. I am very happy because finally our princess arrived who we waited for 9 months.
I was in the room for an hour, then when the doctor gave me the opportunity to pick her up I felt great emotions, Wanda has suffered the most, but now I can rest before returning home.
They say she looks like her father, but we’ll see when she’s older. Dedication? For her, of course, although I do not know when the coach will make me play, whether tomorrow or Sunday. My next goal will be for the mother of this child.”
Mauro Icardi’s Love Story is quite similar to Cesc Fabregas, who also claimed another man’s wife. Its quite different from Robert Lewandowski, Radamel Falcao and Antonio Griezmann who found their woman and got married without issues.
Mauro Icardi Tattoo Facts:
Icardi’s controversial relationship with Wanda Nara, the ex-wife of his best friend and team-mate Maxi Lopez, has read like the worst-scripted soap opera.
One of the best episodes has remarkably managed to hit a new low after the Inter Milan striker decided to get a tattoo of the former best friend’s three children on his arm.
Icardi after tattooing his hand tweeted his new ink, with the message: ‘I love these three little angels’.
Lopez reacted; ‘I can understand that, being a public figure, he publishes photos. But I’m not comfortable with my kids being in those photos,’ Lopez said to Sky Sport.
He added: ‘The kids are my strength… and they know I will do everything to protect them because they mean everything to me.’
Now, here comes the mightiest tattoo of all. The giant lion tattoo represents his figure in the field of play. Icardi shared the image on his Instagram account and declared: “After three days and five months, it is looking good.
Arturholykoi is the name of Icardi’s tattoo artist.
Mauro Icardi Bio – Branded a ‘traitor’:
The talented Inter forward has faced a lot of criticism for his part in the breaking up of Nara and Lopez’s marriage. As recently, Diego Maradona brewed a war of words with Mauro Icardi, labelling the Inter captain as a ‘traitor’.
When asked to give a view of his countryman’s marital life, he said; ‘I don’t speak about traitors’.
Icardi wasn’t one to sit back and take the insult quietly as he also made a scathing reply, claiming that the Argentine legend loved making a mess out of situations.
And it doesn’t end here as Inter’s former manager, Frank De Boer, also joined the battle to defend his player by claiming that Icardi’s reply to the Napoli legend was the right thing to do.
The surprising thing is; None of this affected Icardi’s form as he has continued to score amazing goals for his club.
Clashing with his own fans:
In a Serie A away match against Sassuolo in 2015, Inter were handed a humiliating defeat by the minnows.
Icardi was introduced as a second-half substitute with the Nerazzurri trailing by two goals. The Argentine scored one for Inter, but an 83rd-minute penalty by Sassuolo sealed the game.
After the match, many of Inter’s players went near the stands to thank the fans for their support. Icardi, among others, threw their jerseys into the crowd in the process.
However, a number of shirts were thrown right back at the players by the disgruntled fans who had witnessed their side’s second successive defeat.
Icardi, in particular, was furious at the act and ranted at the fans in anger. He even had to be held back by captain Andrea Ranocchia as his head went over the boil.
Inter boss Roberto Mancini criticised the Argentinian stating that he was wrong. However, he also played down the issue by saying: ‘I told him he shouldn’t have gone to the stands because it was only to be expected that the fans would be angry.”
Mauro Icardi Biography Facts – Goal Scoring Record:
He is the seventh Argentinian to conquer the top scorer title, joining a very exclusive circle that counts all-time big names like Enrique Omar Sivori, Diego Maradona, Gabriel Batistuta and Crespo among others. Mauro Icardi won the Serie A Golden Boot at the age of 22.
Mauro Icardi, is without any doubt a lethal weapon in the last 15 meters. He also holds another record as one of the world’s best forward players who has scored 51 times in only 95 attempts. Nearly a goal every two attempts.
Captaincy Facts:
The Striker was nominated Inter team’s captain by expert coach Roberto Mancini. He is the youngest Inter captain ever in the past 50 years.
The big question people have asked is; Why was Mauro Icardi given the Captaincy role?
Roberto Mancini gave him the role because he saw him as the best in the following qualities. Mauro was the most professional during training. He has the most concentration and is a game’s fast reader.
This sums his maturity in the field. And one of his best features is speed – he is a very quick runner. While he’s only on the threshold of becoming 23 years old, his maturity in and out of the field truly is impressive.
Mauro Icardi Facts – Style of Play:
Icardi is a quick, tactically intelligent, and physically strong striker. He is loaded with good technique, attacking movement, positioning, and an eye for scoring goal. He is one who mainly operates in central areas inside the penalty area.
Fact Check:
More so, Icardi is an accurate and efficient finisher with his head and both feet inside the box.
He is known for his ability to score from a few touches, although he can also hold up the ball in order to create space or chances for his teammates.
This is why he was nicknamed El Niño del partido, and O cañito.