The details of the operation to seduce Alejandro Garnacho so that he continues choosing the Argentine team and does not allow himself to be tempted by Spain

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Garnacho and his snapshot with Messi, when he was summoned in 2022
Garnacho and his snapshot with Messi, when he was summoned in 2022

Although he was born in Madrid and accompanied by an unmistakable Spanish accent, Alexander Garnacho is, perhaps, the most captivating project of the Argentine national team world champion. The 18-year-old winger dazzles with his meteoric power and speed at Manchester United, to the point that a glory from the Red Devils like Paul Scholes risked: “He’s like a young Cristiano Ronaldo”. In the Ezeiza complex they know that the attacker could represent the next “silver bullet” for the Albiceleste in the near future. As close as the World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada. To do this, they bet on covering it, injecting it with the identity and mystique that is breathed in La Scaloneta; to prepare him, of course, and also so that he does not give in to the siren songs that he can hear from Spain.

The son of a Spaniard (Álex) and an Argentine (Patricia Ferreyra Fernández), he already had appearances with the Iberian Under 18 team before the AFA scouting department pointed him out as a value to take into account and that Lionel Scaloni to quote him directly to the Mayor team in 2022 to see his behavior and talent up close, to feel the atmosphere of the Argentine team and to even take a picture with Lionel Messi, an unavoidable magnet as an element of seduction. “Dreams really do come true,” he wrote then on his Instagram account, as an epigraph to the top photo, beyond the fact that his mirror is Cristiano Ronaldo, of whom he was a teammate at United.

This was the baptism of Alejandro Garnacho in the Argentine team

As a symbol of integration into the group, like the other promises mentioned for that window of March 2022 (such as Nicolás Paz, to name another name), he had to go through the “baptism” in the concentration: he was forced to get on a chair to sing an Ozuna song, or at least try. It treats of a very common practice in the European establishments, when it arrives a incorporation.

That landing was not without some setback. “They asked him to play against Venezuela and they had to get his passport. He came with a minor’s permit that I don’t know how they managed to get him out of England. Do you know what that was? Poorly written, everything. We went to the airport where they make your passport in an hour and they told us ‘this doesn’t work’. I tell him ‘this should have been done differently, your old man should have done it better’, and he looked at me. He asks me, ‘why my old man? My mom and dad are eating pizza on Corrientes street. They came to visit. I called his father and told him ‘stop eating, we have to do the passport urgently,'” he said. Omar Soutohistorical manager of national teams, about the obstacle saved.

They taught him to drink mate and everything went well. It is already adapted to the group. I think that the senior team will take it into account again with a view to the next World Cup”, he concluded in an interview with TNT Sports.

Of course, upon his return to Manchester – who paid 420,000 euros to Atlético de Madrid for his record – after that first experience his growth was exponential. He won filming, he honored the opportunities and burst in with an unexpected force. He again dressed as an albiceleste in the Maurice Revello (formerly Esperanzas de Toulón) tournament, entered the pre-list for the Qatar World Cup, but did not make it through the final cut of 26 players. And, although there was speculation about his chances given the last-minute losses of Nicolás González and Joaquín Correa, those places went to Ángel Correa, a history of the Scaloni cycle, and Thiago Almada.

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Perhaps, at that moment, the main moment of anxiety occurred, thinking about his future. “The fear was that Spain would take him to the World Cup”, pointed out someone from the AFA with knowledge of the facts. On top of that, before the news that he was not chosen for the excursion to Doha, he committed a youthful sin: on social networks he “liked” a response to a tweet in support of Almada. “They did not call Garnacho because he is Spanish”, expressed the message of the user @cabifyyy that the 18-year-old soccer player liked. Immediately afterwards, he published an image of a celebration of his with United, in which he exhibited his jacket with the number forward, in the best CR7 style. However, Luis Enrique did not mention it either. And along the way from Argentina to Qatar, he returned to support his adoptive homeland, the identity that his mother passed on to him.

“I was born in Madrid, but my mother is Argentine, like all her family, and it is an honor to be able to represent Argentina, just as it was at the time to represent Spain,” he was able to declare. That slow-fire work headed from Ezeiza to ensure his services and make him feel sheltered faltered again this summer. The thing is Javier Mascherano He wanted him to play in the South American Sub 20, but the transfer to the clubs was not mandatory and Manchester did not allow him to travel. The coach endorsed him to tell it in the World Cup in Indonesia, the hook was effective, and Garnacho accompanied the team in networks, which surprisingly stumbled in the group stage and did not get a ticket to the ecumenical competition (nor to the Pan American Games).

Goal celebration with United: in the season he accumulates three goals in 18 games (Reuters / Lee Smith)
Goal celebration with United: in the season he accumulates three goals in 18 games (Reuters / Lee Smith)

Despite the squandered opportunity to dress him in the National Team’s clothing, the operation did not move one iota from the original plan. Once a week, a member of the Albiceleste coaching staff calls or messages him, or asks him how he is doing, as is the case with the bulk of the star group.. And he is close, very close, to a world champion ambassador: his partner Lisandro Martinez. The defender “adopted” it; if even in the virtual winks he calls him “little brother”.

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And the greatest support from Scaloni and his team will come in the calls. Garnacho will be part of the process thinking about 2026. Possibly he will not be on the list of the friendlies in March, one in the Monumental (apparently, against Panama) and the other in the interior of the country (Córdoba, San Juan and San Luis are three provinces with which the leadership held talks): unless there are injured, the 26 heroes who won the third star for Argentina and those who missed the feat for physical reasons (the aforementioned Nico González and Joaquín Correa, plus Giovani Lo Celsus). However, from June, if he maintains his level, he is in a position to become a regular.

“He is a phenomenon, he has everything to be an important player,” warn those who know the corners of the home of the National Team. And they want his official supersonic speed uniform to be light blue and white.

Keep reading:

Alejandro Garnacho’s reaction to the provocative post of one of the figures of the Brazilian Under 20 team
Two Manchester United legends were dazzled by the brilliance of Alejandro Garnacho: “He’s like a young Cristiano Ronaldo”
The complete story of Pocho Román, the Argentine youth who amazed Xavi at Barcelona