Julián Álvarez and Lionel Messi: a photo, a dream, an idol and a World Cup in common

Wearing a River shirt, black, with a red sash. Julián Álvarez, still a boy, was asked what his dream was. And like Diego Maradona did at Villa Fiorito and a black and white viral, the boy from Calchín replied that all he wanted was to play in a World Cup.

El Araña, now a figure of Manchester City and world champion with the national team, told part of his story and his privacy in a mini-documentary of just over 11 minutes that the city club made on the millionaire goalscorer and second scorer Argentinian, with four whoops, in Qatar 2022.

The leitmotif of the interview were some photos. Some with their family and others from specific moments of the World Cup in which Argentina ended 36 years of drought without planetary smiles.

After showing what the celebrations were like in Lusail and in the failed attempt to reach the Obelisk, the photo appeared that the man directed by Pep Guardiola took, in 2011, with Lionel Messi. His idol.

He doesn’t give details in his reply, but says that during the Copa América he played in Argentina. That night, at the Mario Kempes, Sergio Batista’s team faced Ricardo La Volpe’s Costa Rica, so it is worth hypothesizing that the scene in the photo, together with his brothers, was there, in his native province.

“My brother and I had the opportunity to take a picture with him during the 2011 Copa América in Argentina. He has always been our idol because we grew up watching him and his football.”he says, sitting behind a desk with the pitch in the background and a World Cup replica next to him.

The Argentine number 10 is dressed as a starter and Álvarez in blue and white. Almost premonitory when one faces his last years of career and the other manufactures his first weapons and collects medals with a humility that has nothing to do with the backbiting and confidence with which he plays.

“Seeing everything he fought to win a title with the Argentina national team, to win a World Cup, all the moments he lived with the national team. And now being able to be by his side, help him and be part of it is something unique that we never forget behind. to never forget”he adds with his unalterable Cordoban accent and his shyness, even if the advertising panels of the Etihad Stadium, during the interview, do nothing but show “19 Julián Álvarez”.

Guardiola’s praise and the way he was received by the fans and the city team make him blush more than make him stick out his chest and look over his shoulder.

“I’m not one who talks a lot and neither is he, but the relationship is still very good and it’s up to me to change next to him in the locker room. So nothing, it’s a privilege”, he still says incredulously. , as if he had met someone unreachable Yes, he talks about Messi.

Messi was when Julián watched him from Calchín. Eleven years after that photo, he can say he is a world champion and what was crucial for the 10 to realize his sporting utopia of him.

“It will take me a while to assimilate what we have achieved,” he confesses. “It’s what I’ve always dreamed of,” she adds. With the speed with which he went from 0 to 100, exactly one month ago against Croatia to make it 2 to 0, the former River scored on his dream list, the two that perhaps revealed him the most.