LONDON — The moment has passed, but it still feels strange that Éder is the scorer who helped seal Italy’s qualification for the 2016 European championship.

It is not that Italy called up a Brazilian to lead its attack, but rather that it needed to in the first place.

It is neither illegal nor exceptional anymore for national teams to field players born outside their country. Éder Citadin Martins, though born in Brazil, qualified for Italy on two grounds, both by residency (he has lived in Italy long enough) and family heritage (he is a dual citizen of both countries).

But what is shocking to some Italians is that given the country’s history of wonderful strikers — like Luigi Riva, Paolo Rossi, Alessandro Del Piero and even Christian Vieri and Salvatore Schillaci, known by his nickname Totò — it had to borrow a player who was born and raised in another culture.