He starred for the reserve team in the second half of the last campaign by scoring seven goals in eight games and finished as their top scorer.
Sporting director Frank Arnesen has been charged with the task of finding young talent that is good enough to progress into the first team and it looks like his two-year scouting mission on Di Santo is finally paying off.
The Dane said: "He is closer to being in the first team squad than anyone else at the moment.
"He has already played at the highest level in Chile so has a very good background. He didn't speak a word of English when he came here, knew nothing about our training methods and still scored many goals straight away."
At 6ft 3ins, he has a physical presence on the pitch as well as a knack of scoring goals in a similar vein to former Chelsea striker and fellow Argentine Hernan Crespo.
He played in South America's equivalent of the Champions League and such was the standard of his play that clubs such as Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Barcelona and Real Madrid also chased his signature.
Yet he was keen to follow in Crespo's footsteps by making a mark at Chelsea. In April, he said: "There were possibilities to go to the Latin countries but the football I always enjoyed watching most was the English football and I have been lucky enough to have the opportunity to come. I used to enjoy watching Hernan Crespo when he was at Chelsea."
The progress of another striker may not be welcomed so much by fading star Andriy Shevchenko, whose lack of fitness has seen him ruled out of the first two games of their pre-season tour in Asia.
Shevchenko may be one of the ageing players Ferguson was referring too and the number of first-team opportunities for the Ukrainian next season looks bleak.
Scolari promised when he started the job that he would bring young players through and in Di Santo he could have been handed the type of prospect to make Ferguson live to regret questioning Chelsea's ability to challenge next term.
