Enzo Fernández, the boy who asked for compassion for Messi

While Argentina seeks eternal glory, theirs and Messi's, the most encouraging news they seem to have found in their harrowing start in Qatar -besides the relief of La Pulga against Mexico- is the irruption of a precocious boy who, when not yet He was nobody, only 15 years old, he denounced the injustice of the country with 10, asked for compassion for the star, and spoke with great intensity about the loneliness of the aspiring soccer star.

His name is Enzo Fernández, he is now 21, he plays in the middle and in his career almost everything has gone very fast.

At five they already wanted him for the River Plate youth academy;

A season in the Millonarios first team was enough for him to jump to Europe (Benfica) and get a clause of 120 million;

and now they have three pieces left over from three recent friendlies against middling rivals (Honduras, Jamaica and the Emirates) to play a World Cup.

He has not even started the first two games, but his display is among the most hopeful of a team that has been numb up to now.

In his country, always the one he jumps at, very few doubt the prominence that awaits him in the tournament, starting perhaps this Wednesday against Poland (8:00 p.m., World Goal), in which the Albiceleste is playing the pass to the round of 16 (a victory He guarantees it without looking at Saudi Arabia-Mexico).

Due to his overwhelming personality, he does not settle, he does not allow himself mistakes”

Pablo Esquivel, its discoverer

"Hit him from outside, you're going to score a goal," Pablo Esquivel wrote to him on Friday, the coach who discovered him when he was "a five-year-old boy" in San Martín, a town on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.

He listened to him and became the youngest player (21 years and 313 days) to score for the Albiceleste in a World Cup since Messi against Serbia in 2006 (18 years and 257 days).

A great cross shot, sharpened to the long post that capped off a revitalizing performance in a very poor team.

In the last week, in addition to him, seven other players have paraded through the midfield: De Paul (the only one who has repeated ownership), Paredes, Papu Gómez, Guido Rodríguez, Mac Allister, Julián Álvarez and Exequiel Palacios.

The result of all of them has been a wasteland except for the signs of this young man who was named Enzo by Enzo Francescoli,

River myth.

In his house, River is not discussed.

“Because of his overwhelming personality, he has no ceiling, he does not settle, he does not allow mistakes.

When he went to live alone, one of the first things he asked his agent for was a gym inside," says Esquivel on the other end of the phone, who found him at La Recova (his childhood club) and didn't stop until he took him to River.

“I was surprised by his intelligence and his leadership despite how small he was.

I found his parents, I talked to them and months later they brought him to me, ”he recalls.

"Thank you and sorry" to La Pulga

They soon nicknamed him the "musician" for his leadership of the team.

And not "fat" either.

In fact, lifelong companions still call it.

“He never wanted to show photos of the 10 years because he was all inflated.

Through a friend, I put him in a high-performance center, he lost five kilos in a month and he didn't stop anymore, ”his father, Raúl, pointed out these days in the Argentine media.

“My wife (Marta) took him to train by collective [urban bus] because we didn't have a vehicle.

They left at noon and returned at six or seven in the afternoon, depending on how long the 28th took”, he now recounted from La Perla, one of the most luxurious areas of Doha.

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In recent days, Enzo Fernández has not only surprised his ability to add depth to a flat Argentina.

The newspaper library has also spoken of him.

In 2016, at just 15 years old, he released himself in two Facebook posts that these days have been eagerly dusted off on the other side of the ocean.

First he talked about him and the difficulties of the road, with that vehemence of adolescence and even with literary airs.

“No one knows the sacrifice I make, the mud I step on, the rains I suffer, the cold I go through, the heat that suffocates me, the earth that scrapes me.

Nobody sees that when he has a mistake he spends all day thinking about it.

You can criticize me, but I don't listen to you because I'm training”.

And a month and a half later, in the second, he felt the need to beg Messi not to leave the team (he had announced his departure after losing the Copa América final), that he did understand.

“How are we going to convince you, that we are dead, that in our lives we had 1% of your pressure.

40 million inhabitants ridiculously demand that you do the perfect things even though we don't even know you.

what you want, Lionel, but please

about staying.

But stay for the fun, which is what these people have taken from you.

Thank you and sorry, ”he wrote to her.

Six years have passed since this claim and plea, and now the two are almost the only good thing about Argentina in this World Cup.

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