It was a moment that could’ve buckled any young striker’s confidence.

Udinese are away to Lecce at the Stadio Via del Mare and Lorenzo Lucca is adamant he’s taking a penalty.

The thing is, Lucca isn’t supposed to be taking the spot-kick. Florian Thauvin is the club’s designated taker, and the Frenchman is on the field.

Lucca grabs the ball and doesn’t let go. The lanky striker is now surrounded by teammates who are attempting to persuade him to hand it to Thauvin.

Chaos ensues for several minutes and the referee books Lucca for time wasting. 

Lucca eventually waves his teammates away. Some of them even stood on the penalty spot to deny him the chance to put the ball down.

He faces Wladimiro Falcone in the Lecce goal, and promptly plants the ball into the keeper’s top right-hand corner. 

Udinese are 1-0 up and the goal would be the only one in an otherwise uninspiring performance. No one celebrated with Lucca.

“I felt in the moment I had to take the penalty,” Lucca later said of the incident. “I didn’t think it would’ve caused so much chaos in the team. 

“But as the number nine I felt I had to do it and so I did.”

Thauvin, who also happens to be club captain, wanted to be taken off as a result.

Lucca, however, was the one substituted just five minutes after the goal, no doubt as punishment by coach Kosta Runjaic. Minutes on the clock? Thirty-six.

That goal was his 10th of the season.

“I made the decision because someone who is not following the rules in that moment is not showing respect for the whole team,” said Runjaic after the game last month. “And we are a team.

“Nobody’s bigger than the team, nobody’s bigger than the club. Such things happen. I’m quite clear and I’m quite calm. We’ll speak about this, but it’s not for me a big story.”

Runjaic was as good as his word and Lucca started the three games following the Lecce debacle. However, he hasn’t scored since.

Such a moment could have backfired. But it didn’t, and it showed remarkable confidence, defiance and composure. Especially from a 24-year-old playing in Serie A for only two seasons.

Despite the drama in Lecce, Lucca’s form and goals earned him a call up to Luciano Spalletti’s Italy squad for the games against Germany in the UEFA Nations League.

This season has been a particularly good one as far as Italian strikers is concerned. Following Italy’s dismal showing at Euro 2024, Spalletti will have no doubt been scratching his head over where his next striker was going to come from.

The Azzurri had plenty of issues in Germany last summer, but it was clear a reliable striker was one of the biggest. Gianluca Scamacca disappointed, as did Mateo Retegui.

This season, however, Moise Kean has exploded at Fiorentina and Retegui has done the same at Atalanta. Perhaps Euro 2024 was a tournament too soon for the latter. Under Gian Piero Gasperini, Retegui is having a breakout season and will almost certainly be in contention for a starting berth at the next World Cup (granted Italy make it).

Kean, should he remain in Florence, will be in the same boat. But Lucca’s form further down the table with Udinese will give Spalletti hope in terms of depth.

The dearth of Italian strikers in the past 15 years has been dire. Compared to the 1990s when Arrigo Sacchi could leave the likes of Roberto Baggio, Gianluca Vialli and Beppe Signori at home for Euro ’96, recent Azzurri coaches haven’t had the same luxury.

Even going back to 2006, when Marcello Lippi could afford to ignore someone as talented as Antonio Cassano, the lack of attacking players to pick from has been scant in recent years.

Such was Spalletti’s dilemma that Stephan El Shaarawy, who had played for Italy all of eight times in the prior six years, was called up to bolster numbers.

Therefore Lucca’s rising star will no doubt be music to the 66-year-old’s ears.

His towering frame, with Lucca standing at 6ft 5in, gives Spalletti a dangerous presence in the box and a different dimension in attack.

Lucca and Retegui top the charts for headed goals this season, with five apiece.

“Headers are my strongest point,” said Lucca recently. Runjaic agreed, saying: “He’s maybe the best header of the ball [in the league] at moment.”

That aerial presence will no doubt remind older Udinese fans of Oliver Bierhoff. 

The German striker made his name at the club in the late 1990s and was one of the best headers of a ball in Serie A, scoring as many as 15 in 1998-99 to help AC Milan to the Scudetto.

Yet heading isn’t all there is to Lucca’s game. He’s deceptively mobile and technical considering his frame. A season with Ajax no doubt helped hone his skills in that respect. 

Lucca made his Italy debut last October against Israel. It was only six minutes, but it is something to build on.

Whether he gets minutes against Germany at San Siro on Thursday evening remains to be seen, but his form gives Spalletti options in attack, something the former Napoli coach hasn’t had since replacing Roberto Mancini 18 months ago.

And that’s always a positive.