With a River shirt on, black, with a red band.
a still boy Julián Álvarez was asked what his dream is.
And as Diego Maradona did in Villa Fiorito and a black and white viral, the kid from Calchín replied that all he wanted was to play in a World Cup.
El Araña, today a Manchester City figure and world champion with the National Team, told part of his story and privacy in a mini-documentary of just over 11 minutes that the citizen club made about the millionaire goalscorer and second Argentine goalscorer, with four screams , in Qatar 2022.
The thread of the interview were some photos.
Some with his family and others from specific moments of the World Cup in which Argentina ended a 36-year drought without planetary smiles.
After showing how the celebrations were in Lusail and in the failed attempt to reach the Obelisk, the photo that the man directed by Pep Guardiola took, in 2011, with Lionel Messi appeared.
His idol.
Messi and Alvarez, society of go.
Photo: Fernando de la Orden / Special Envoy
In his answer he does not give details, but he does say that during the Copa América played in Argentina.
That night, Sergio Batista's team faced Ricardo La Volpe's Costa Rica at Mario Kempes, so it is worth assuming that the scene in the photo, together with his brothers, was there, in his native province.
"With my brother we had the opportunity in the 2011 Copa América in Argentina to take a picture with him. He was always our idol because we grew up looking at him and his football," he
says, sitting behind a desk, with the playing field of background and a replica of the World Cup next to it.
The Argentine number 10 is dressed in starting clothing and Álvarez in light blue and white.
Almost premonitory when one faces his last years of his career and the other makes his first weapons and collects medals with a humility that has nothing to do with the slander and self-confidence with which he plays.
"Seeing everything he fought to win a title with the Argentine 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 this is something unique that we are not leaving behind. to never forget"
, he adds with his unalterable Cordoba accent and shyness, although the Etihad Stadium advertising panels, during the interview, do no other than show "19 Julián Álvarez".
Another sequence of the goal against Croatia and the hug between the two members of the National Team.
Photo: Fernando de la Orden / Special Envoy
Guardiola's praise and how he was received by the fans and the city squad make him blush more than make him stick out his chest and look over his shoulders.
"I'm not one to talk a lot and neither is he, but the relationship is still very good and it's my turn to change next to him in the locker room. So, nothing, it's a privilege," he says, still incredulous, as if he had met a someone unreachable
Yes, he talks about Messi.
Messi was when Julián looked at him from Calchín.
Eleven years after that photo, he can say that he is a world champion and what was essential for 10 to make his sporting utopia a reality.
"It's going to take me a while to assimilate what we achieved," he confesses.
"It's what I always dreamed of," she adds.
With the speed with which he went from 0 to 100, exactly a month ago against Croatia to score 2 to 0, the former River marked him on his dream list, the two that perhaps most revealed him.
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