Udinese goalkeeper Juan Musso insists he was always certain that Inter striker Lautaro Martinez would go on to achieve success at the Nerazzurri.

The Argentina goalkeeper was briefly a teammate of Martinez at Racing Club in his homeland, before the pair moved to Udinese and Inter respectively in 2018.

“I have been a goalkeeper since I was a child. I started playing football when I was nine, before that I played basketball,” Musso claimed in an interview published in today’s newspaper edition of Corriere dello Sport.

“My idols were [Gianluigi] Buffon, [Iker] Casillas and [Franco] Costanzo. Now the best are [Manuel] Neuer, [Jan] Oblak and [Marc-Andre] Ter Stegen.

“My best save this season was against Lautaro and it was as if I’d scored myself. I was able to read his movement and anticipate him. I’m certainly not surprised by the impact he has had in Italy.

“Back at Racing, when he was still in the reserve team, I once told him that he would be the next great Racing forward. We needed a magician and he was that, he was really strong even then.”

Musso has stood out for Udinese this season and drawn interest from a host of clubs around Serie A and Europe, with Inter thought to be amongst them, but the goalkeeper insisted he was only focused on the Zebrette.

“I don’t think about the transfer market, I am happy in Udine and only thinking about here.”

The 26-year-old reflected on the toughest opponents in Serie A that he had faced, with Martinez’s Inter teammate Romelu Lukaku named amongst them.

“The most difficult is [Fabio] Quagliarella, then [Paulo] Dybala. Facing [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic, like Cristiano Ronaldo or Lukaku, is also a great motivation,” Musso concluded.

Argentina international Musso has made 93 appearances for Udinese since arriving, helping the Friulani to 13th place in Serie A last season. He has kept eight clean sheets in 24 league games this term.