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Fernando Martín Forestieri (born January 16, 1990) is an Italo-Argentinian footballer who currently plays for Genoa 1893, in Serie B.

Forestieri was born in Rosario, from parents of Sicilian (Messina) origins. He started playing for Newell's Old Boys but in 2003, when he was just 13, Boca Juniors bought him for $50,000. In the Buenos Aires, Forestieri became well-known for his way of playing, which was compared with that of Lionel Messi.

In January 2006, at the age of 16, Genoa signed Forestieri on a five-year contract; Boca tried to keep the young player, but failed to do so.^[1]. In March, Boca contested the regularity of the transfer and, refusing a €300,000 indemnification from Genoa, the Argentinian club has submitted the case to AFA.^[2]

In summer he played some friendly matches with the Genoan team, and in one of them, Torino's president Urbano Cairo saw Forestieri in action and offered 500.000€ for him, but Genoa refused.^[3] On 8 November 2006, Forestieri made his official debut with Genoa in a lost Coppa Italia match against Empoli.^[4] Forestieri has been capped by Italy national under-17 football team,^[5] after refusing the calling of the Argentina U17.^[6] The young player decided to play for Azzurri because the dream of his family was to live and work in Italy, and because, as he said in an interview to Il Corriere dello Sport, they think that in Argentina life is to hard and dangerous, in fact Ezequiel, Fernando's brother, is still alive "thanks to a miracle", after someone shot him in the stomach during an armed robbery.

Forestieri made his Serie B league debut on January 13, 2007, on an away match lost 2-1 to Pescara Calcio, by scoring the Genoa goal. He then played as a regular with the Genoa Primavera youth team that won the 2007 International Viareggio trophy.