Máximo Perrone, from Vélez to Sub 20 and from Colombia to Manchester City: “I’m going to the place in the world where I will grow the most”

Massimo Perrone he speaks and is listened to like a mature boy who responds with the experience he treasures. But he just turned 20 in the first week of 2023 and his professional starting point is right here on the timeline. He only has 33 matches for Velez distributed among Libertadores Cupthe Professional soccer league and his Cup, as well as just one match for the Argentina cup. All this in the same year that the Argentine national team won the World Cup in Qatar.

He insists, Perrone speaks as if there weren’t 33 games and has a prudence that is difficult to find in boys of his age. He’s about to play Manchester City -who paid €9.2m to break his release clause- and will partner with Giuliano Alvarez in the team of Pep Guardiola. But it hasn’t happened yet. The midfielder is inside Colombia with the Sub 20 Selection he directs Javier Mascherano and that this Saturday, with the three official stars on his shirt, he will make his debut in the South American match Paraguayan, for the second date of Group A.

Left-handed, with the elegance of the classic “five”, the ability to enter the area from inside and the versatility of playing closer to the flanks, Guardiola will refine him in any sector of the pitch. “Five or eight is what I like best. After that, I play everywhere because I’m happy to play”he says coldly. During a break in preparation for the match against Paraguay, Perrone answered the call from clarion and shared his sensations of a present that he tries to cross without thinking about the future. It’s that if she thinks today about what he’s going to do tomorrow, she believes that when it’s his turn to play, her mind will be elsewhere.

-After Qatar, people want to see the national team again. Your turn. How does it feel to wear the third star on a jersey for the first time?

-People are very, very anxious, and I think on our side we need to calm that anxiety. Go match after match. Yes, by putting the Argentine national team on top because they are world champions: you have to play like one, but you have to be calm.

– Do they have to talk about it to, of all people, get that peace of mind?

-We don’t talk about it, we abstract ourselves. We have to have our own tournament. The world champions are the greatest. We have to do our thing from the bottom up, but playing like a world champion team.

-Recently, when you still played less in the First Division, you said you didn’t feel pressure on the pitch, has that perspective changed now that it’s routine?

-A little nervousness comes before the game, in speeches, when you change. But I enter the field and I forget everything. Concentration is on the first few balls you hit… when you start playing, it’s the most beautiful. Those things are always there and must be there. They are not to be missed.

-How do you experience the changes?

-The truth is that the last year has been very intense: everything has happened. I live it naturally. Football is very fast and changeable. If you’re not prepared for these things, you’re not having fun. Football is very changeable: you have to be prepared, nothing more.

-With that intensity, do you see yourself in a quote from Lionel Scaloni, for the Major?

-Don’t worry. About to arrive. I think it depends on what you do. It is the dream that one has as a boy and it depends on one. My head is in the Sub 20 and nothing else.

-But somehow you should be the natural substitute…

-Yes, let’s see, we are a good group and it would be very nice to continue together, of course. Hopefully this tournament, we would have more tournaments together and then yes, the Major. It would be beautiful. But that’s not what we have to think about today, it’s about playing this South American and leaving the national team as high as possible.

-And what is the most complicated South American team?

-Everyone. South Americans are very tough, very tough, you can’t trust any of them.

-And after that dizzying year in which “everything happened”, what are your dreams now?

– Oh, the dreams. Dreams begin to be objective at this point. And today my biggest goals are short-term: the South American, game after game. I don’t even think beyond Paraguay. I think it will hurt us if we don’t think about the next games before the first one. The goal is to beat Paraguay on Saturday.

-Isn’t there a maximum dream?

– Yes I’m here. But I prefer to keep it to myself. It’s very personal.

-And what motivates you those short-term goals, then?

-There is no more motivation than wearing the national team shirt.

-Two years ago you were a completely different boy than you are today, how do you imagine yourself in two years time?

– Not even two years ago you have to think, just a year ago. The times, I don’t know… We don’t control the time, especially not in football. It’s all very changeable. I hope it will be something good, but I don’t know what.

-Are you looking for advice from someone for these moments: last year’s boom, the transfer to City, the South American, who are you talking to?

-Not only. Only. Football is now, today. If one goes to what may come, he loses focus and things can go wrong. It’s a way of managing myself that I have, of being focused on today.

– And what did Pep tell you?

-I haven’t spoken to Guardiola. I have not had contact with him, but with someone from the club who has been contacted.

-And with Julian Álvarez?

-I’ve known Julián from before, once we did a photo shoot with the national team shirt, we passed each other in the Vélez river. We have few relationships, but good ones.

-And did you ask him about daily life at City?

-Sincerely, I’m honest, I swear I don’t think about anything but this. What has to come after the South American will come.

– You were owner and captain at Vélez… Not at City.

-I understand that it’s always like this, when I was in the reserve I was the starter and when I went to first I was a substitute. When you advance, always start from behind. I don’t attach importance to this. I’m going to the place in the world where I will grow the most. So it’s not something that worries me.

Doesn’t it scare you or does it scare you?

-No. And being afraid is not bad. I’m sure fear will never stop me. Fear, fear, some insecurity will always appear, the problem is that this fear does not stop you and I am very calm.