Sub 20 World Cup: Luka Romero, from the reality show in Spain to fulfill the dream of scoring a goal with Argentina

From Luke Romero football wonders have been told since he was a kid of just a handful of years. But for three years, more precisely since June 24, 2020, he has been confronting himself – even excessively – with Lionel Messi. And it is that day that the Flea Turned 33, the talented left-footed youngster became the youngest debutant in the history of the Spanish league, when he came on for Majorca in the duel before real Madrid. She was 15 years and 219 days old. And always, the one born in Mexico (his father Diego played there, ex Quilmes, among others) on November 18, 2004 dreamed of scoring a goal with the Argentina national team, that land that he had inherited from his father. And on Tuesday afternoon he met a certain Romero: he scored his first goal, nothing more and nothing less than in a Sub 20 World Cup.

“When the ball arrived I thought about kicking it and luckily it happened. Playing in a World Cup with the national team is something very beautiful. we must enjoy everythingRomero said clarion minutes after the victory against Guatemala. And I add: “In the first half we played well, in the second we felt more comfortable after their red card”.

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Luka was unable to be in the South American in Colombia in January because Lazio, his new club, did not allow him to travel. The 18-year-old attacking midfielder is pulling out the thorns in this World Cup in which the national team has entered through the back window. Because it must be said: he could have chosen to play in Mexico, where he was born, or in Spain, where he lived until his trip to Italy. “It’s a beautiful thing when you enter the field and you see the people cheering, it makes you want to give more and more.”, he confessed. Is closed: “We ate our nerves from the first game and now we are calmer. We showed it in today’s match. Now we have to rest, recover and think about New Zealand, which we have already seen the two games played.”

The comparisons between Romero and Messi are understandable: both are left-footed, have a similar style of play and play in the same place on the pitch, are Argentines who grew up abroad from an early age, and so on.

But there is a story that features the two players and the representative Horacio Gaggioli, the representative who brought Messi to Barcelona.

Gaggioli continued his work away from Messi and in 2011 received a call from Miguel Ángel Ruiz, a former Barcelona scout who worked at the Balearic Islands’ Società Sportiva Formentera. “You have to come see a baby,” he released. The boy was 7 years old and it was Luka Romero.

Gaggioli didn’t take long to join the bridges and in December of that 2011 he brought Romero to prove himself in Barcelona. Sure: he had the new Messi. Luka passed the tests without any problems, but again there was one difficulty – age. Romero was 7 years old and in La Masía they don’t accept children under 10 years old. The Barcelona managers offered Luka’s father Diego to move to Catalonia, but he refused the offer because he played and lived with his family. in Formentera. They agreed that they would monitor it month by month.

2015 would be the year Luka’s football would rise to fame. A television show catapulted him to minor fame. “samples“It was called the expedition which was sort of “Road to Glory“and which was broadcast by the IB3 signal, an open channel belonging to the Public Radio and Television Organization of the Balearic Islands. Former players Iván Campo (Mallorca, Valencia and Real Madrid, among others) and the Argentine Gustavo Siviero (played in Mallorca for 4 years and he remained to live there) they had to go all over the island in search of 11 young footballers who would make up their teams. Then, Siviero’s eleven would be compared with Campo’s 11 and the winners would go in Madrid to meet Spanish footballers and watch a live match of the national team. That was the prize. Luka dazzled Iván Campo, who quickly chose him to join his team.

At the same time the program was broadcast, Real Madrid, Villarreal and Mallorca joined Barcelona’s interest. And there Mallorca offered him an 8-year contract and finally, in May 2015, Luka signed with the Mallorcan team.

What followed is better known: the debut in Mallorca and the arrival in Lazio from Italy. Now, the goal with the biancoceleste shirt. And there could have been two, if it weren’t for that crossbar that got in the way. “I stood there, hit him with full force and almost”closed in a very Argentinian way.