A Saturday afternoon in October at the Hebburn Sports and Social Ground, Tyne & Wear. Some Hebburn Town fans are already heading for the exits as Oxford City, 3-0 up in the 81st minute, send on their new signing. Fernando Forestieri has shared pitches with Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and played in front 72,000 fans at Real Madrid's iconic Bernabeu Stadium.
On this occasion, in English football's sixth tier, there are 873 supporters present to witness Oxford City's new Argentine number 15 come on for his debut. "It was like a tennis match, the ball going one way one second, then the other way the next," Forestieri, 36, told BBC Sport after his new club, nicknamed the Hoops, secured a seventh win in 11 games to sit third in National League North. On Friday, Oxford City host Leicester City in the first round of the FA Cup ( ), with former Watford and Sheffield Wednesday forward Forestieri looking to inspire the non-league club to a famous win over the League One Foxes.
It is 10 years since Leicester famously won the Premier League title. In the same season Forestieri was helping Sheffield Wednesday reach the Championship play-off final, where the Owls lost to Hull City at Wembley. "There's a big gap between what Leicester did 10 years ago and where they are now," he said.
"Why can't Oxford City cause an upset? This is what the FA Cup is all about." Forestieri ready for fresh challenge at Oxford City Forestieri encountered Barcelona, Messi and Ibrahimovic while playing for Malaga in Spain's top flight in 2009-10. Meanwhile, he shared the same pitch with Ronaldo as recently as five years ago when Juventus played Forestieri's Udinese team in Serie A.
"You never forget being on the same pitch as these big players," added Forestieri, whose CV includes scoring against Inter Milan for Siena. "Messi, Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic... unbelievable skills. Being that close to them you remember their first touch, their vision." Forestieri grew up playing football on the streets of Rosario - the same city in Argentina Messi was born - and idolised Diego Maradona.
When Maradona died in 2020, Forestieri wrote a tribute to the 1986 Argentina World Cup winner on the back of his Udinese shirt. "Growing up in Argentina, everyone pretended to be Diego," he said. "He was a hero to everyone.
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