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Mateo Pellegrino Casalanguida was born in Valencia on October 22, 2001. In his early years his path in football followed that of his father, Mauricio, the former Barcelona, Liverpool and Valencia defender. Mateo began in the youth academy at Valencia before joining Inter when his dad became assistant coach at the Nerazzurri during Rafa Benitez's brief spell in Milan. At the age of 16 anni, Mateo returned to his father's homeland, Argentina, to complete his youth development at Velez Sarsfield – the club where his father started out. After making his professional debut for Velez, he spent time on loan at Platense and Estudiantes, where he attracted the interest of Parma, who decided to bring him to Europe. When Pellegrino first arrived in Italy, he got little playing time under Fabio Pecchia. However, Pecchia's successor was Cristian Chivu, who was coached by Mauricio at Inter in 2010. The Romanian showed faith in the boy and was soon repaid: after two brief substitute appearances, Chivu threw on Mateo on in the 55th minute against Torino and the Argentine struck a double that won the game and earned him the man of the match award. Last season, his first full campaign in Italy, Pellegrino notched 12 goals and one assist in 39 appearances in all competitions – numbers that are more impressive considering that Parma had Serie A's joint third-worst scoring record last year, with just 28 goals.