Enzo Fernández’s lightning year: from his experience in Defense and Justice to setting foot at the World Cup with the national team

In just over a year, Enzo Fernandez A life flashed before his young eyes: he abandoned Defense and Justicehad Sebastián Beccacece alienated from Marcelo Gallardo, was consolidated into Rivershouted champion with the club of which he is a fan, was summoned to the Argentina national teamwas sold to Benfica at 18 million euros, made his Portugal debut and in two games caught the attention of Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp and is now one step away from playing his first World Cup in Qatar. In months of dizziness and football, the Fat earned the consideration of Lionel Scalloniwhich has it more and more inside Scaloneta.

The story has already been told and deserves to be told again. The scene took place in early 2019, in a studio at the Ezeiza property. River’s first team faced a group of youngsters. And Marcelo Gallardo was dazzled by Enzo Fernández’s game, who was 18 at the time and had barely played 13 minutes in the Reserve. To the Doll He didn’t care and weeks later he took him to the substitutes’ bench in a duel against Patronato, on January 27, 2019. But we know that River usually has rich teams and it’s not easy to give youngsters a run. Thus, the DT was only able to make his debut in the 3-0 defeat against the Liga de Quito for the Copa Libertadores, on 4 March 2020 (he entered in the 35th minute of the second half for Santiago Sosa).

Fernández found no minutes at River and made a career-changing decision: go on loan to Defense and Justice. In Florencio Varela’s group he won the shoot, first under the technical direction of Hernán Crespo and then of Sebastián Beccacece. He played 32 games, scored one goal and won 2 titles (Copa Sudamericana 2020 and Recopa Sudamericana 2021).

With the 8 on the back and moving like a central steering wheel, on May 27, 2021 he played his last game in Falcon in Varela: 1-1 against Independiente del Valle for the Copa Libertadores. Gallardo asked him to come back before the loan expired in December. Beccacece shouted to the sky and since then the relationship between the technicians has been tense. All the more so when days later the River manager assured that Fernández had to adapt to the team’s pace of play, which was different from what he had in defense.

The following steps are the most popular. In 53 games, Fernández marveled at River with 12 goals and 10 assists. His performances led him to the national team, when in November 2021 Scaloni summoned him together with a group of young people for the qualifying duels against Uruguay and Brazil (finally he was not on the bench in both matches). European clubs put a magnifying glass on him and Benfica took him after paying 18 million euros for 75 per cent of the pass.

He shone in his first games at Benfica with 2 goals in 2 games. It was his turn to make his debut in the group stage of the Champions League and he was a figure against Maccabi Haifa and against Juventus in Turin. This last game was special because it was the first real challenge at the elite level: he owned the Benfica game at the home of the old lady. Maybe that’s why Lionel Scaloni put him on the final list of the last tour. What’s more: he will play in one of the matches against Honduras or Jamaica. And the doubt arises; Will he win a ticket to the World Cup, given that Exequiel Palacios cannot get out of constant injuries?

In just over a year, everything happened to Enzo Fernández. And still waiting to put the strawberry on the cake: Qatar 2022.