El Diablito Echeverri, the U17 boy who fulfilled his dream of training with Messi in the Argentine national team

At just 17 and facing his first big challenge with the colors of Argentina national teamin the Under 17 Claudio Echeverrione of the figures of the main Reserve of Riverand current top promise from Nuñez’s seedbed, shared a workout with the world champion squad. Lionel Scaloni added it to the major’s practice in Ezeiza’s property e “The Little Devil” (that’s how they nickname him) moved in along with Lionel Messi and all the figures of the team that achieved eternal glory in Qatar World Cup.

Claudio Echeverri is hungry for glory. And talent, a lot of talent to play football. He comes from Chaco, category 2006, and has been playing in River for more than six years, where he joined their Infantiles. Then, a few months after arriving from his native Chaco, videos of his goals went viral on the networks. And not only here, but also at an international tournament in Venice, where, wearing the number 8 shirt, he scored four goals for Juventus.

Upon returning from that competition, and with the uproar that his participation in that youth tournament made, in which he distinguished himself not only for the goals scored, but also for the assists and luxuries, Gabriel Rodriguezcoordinator of the Infantiles de River, approached the then president Rodolfo D’Onofrio to suggest that sooner or later he must be protected because major clubs in Europe would start considering him. Indeed, Barcelona asked for him.

Rodríguez already knew him because he had also taken him to the Parque Chas baby football, where “El Diablito” was even encouraged to go on goal when there was no goalkeeper to complete the team. “He’s very interesting, he’s got skill and he’s very creative,” Rodríguez said clarion when describing it.

At the end of last year, and after being unemployed for five months due to a fractured lumbar vertebrae, Echeverri recovered and is back with everything since making the leap to Reserve this year, where he made his debut at the start of the championship in progress. Before, at the end of 2022, he signed a contract with a three-year extension and a release clause of €20 million which amount to 25 in the last days of each transfer market.

In River, not only his virtues with the ball stand out, but also his precocious professionalism, since then transferred from Resistencia to Núñez, first with his mother, and has followed a very disciplined routine ever since. Even before being loaded onto the Reservation, in the last months of last year, he made his way to Hurlingham every morning and back for lunch and to go to the River Institute, because his studies are part of the familial mandate that his father, Domingo, instilled in him he. He also has a personal psychologist and follows the diet assigned to him by the club’s professionals to the letter.

Echeverri is a friend of Santino Gallardi, the Doll’s third child, with whom she shared a household, and they also usually ate together at the former River manager’s house; admirer of Ortega burrito, who he worked with on individual technique, definition, dribbling and free kicks in Children, from which he said he learned a lot; and has as a reference matías suarezfrom Primera players, because “I really like the controls he has and the movements he makes, he’s a great player and an example to learn from”.

Before joining River, Echeverri played for Deportivo Luján, Villa Río Negro, in the Chaco League, and now, in addition to being the figure of the River Reserve, he is part of the U-17 team, which leads Diego Pleasant and which is in full preparation for the South American to be held from March 31 in Ecuador.