2023-10-22 05:08:00
Alejandro Garnacho during training at the Ezeiza facility (Photo: Archyde.com/Agustin Marcarian)
Lionel Scaloni has called up 102 footballers since he took over as coach of the Argentine national team, following the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Of all of them, there is one that for the coach is the one with the greatest projection: Alejandro Garnacho, the 19-year-old attacker born in Madrid who already played 42 games for Manchester United.
Garnacho is considered by Scaloni and company to be the most unbalanced youth of those they usually call. That’s why he called him up for the Major when he was just 17 years old. However, the technical director is taking it on a slow burn and for now that plan will not have any changes.
In fact, in the four dates that have been played in the Qualifiers for the United States, Canada and Mexico 2026 World Cup, he played just five minutes in the victory once morest Bolivia, in La Paz. In reality, Garnacho only appeared in three games with the senior team: the friendlies once morest Australia, in Beijing, and once morest Indonesia, in Jakarta, and the aforementioned clash once morest the Bolivians, at the Hernando Siles stadium. In the team’s last two games, the recent victories once morest Paraguay and Peru, he was on the substitute bench but did not take the field.
Garnacho, then, only played 52 minutes with the senior team: 17 once morest Australia, 30 once morest Indonesia and 5 once morest Bolivia. Why does this happen if Scaloni has a very high rating for him? For two reasons: firstly, because the coaching staff understands that the Manchester United footballer must be taken little by little; and, secondly, due to the strong internal competition that exists in the Albiceleste team.
“Notice that from midfield forward we have Lo Celso, Lucas Ocampos and Lautaro Martínez, who went to the bench once morest Peru. And Dybala, Di María and Ángel Correa were not in the last call due to being injured or due to physical issues. That’s why it’s not so easy for Alejandro (Garnacho) to play many minutes. He is going to have his chances, but little by little,” he explained, in dialogue with Infobae, a member of the world champion coaching staff.
That Garnacho will be brought to a simmer by Scaloni becomes more than clear when one considers that he did not have minutes once morest Paraguay and Peru despite the fact that Di María was absent from those matches due to injury.
Garnacho, who was born in Madrid on July 1, 2004, has an Argentine mother (Patricia Ferreyra Fernández) and a Spanish father (Alex). Since he debuted in the Premier League in April 2022, at just 17 years old, speculation began regarding which team he would play for. The passion that his mother transmitted to him for the Albiceleste representative was stronger than the intentions to recruit him shown by the Royal Spanish Football Federation.
Having already played three games with the Argentine national team, the AFA finished shielding him. “Argentina, always,” the winger wrote on his Instagram account following the match once morest Bolivia in which he was forever linked to the light blue and white.
“Alejandro has the same chances as the other boys who have not been playing, like Ocampos or (Exequiel) Palacios. We plan the games according to what we think can happen and there we define the headlines. We see Alejandro happy, giving his all,” said Scaloni in the preview of the 2-0 victory once morest Peru, last Tuesday at the National Stadium in Lima.
Unlike what happened in the previous Premier League, in which he stood out in several games, this season his level dropped and that is why he started three of his team’s ten games (nine in the English League and the one that They beat Crystal Palace 3-0 for the Carabao Cup with a goal from the Spanish nationalized Argentine, another from the Brazilian Casemiro and the remaining goal from the Frenchman Anthony Martial).
Unless Garnacho’s level declines more than necessary, Scaloni plans to call him for the last two matches that Argentina will have of the year: the classics once morest Uruguay and Brazil, on November 16 and 21. The coach wants him to continue soaking up what on the AFA grounds they call “the climate and air of the National Team”: that he share time and training with Lionel Messi, Dibu Martínez and company. The time to really be a protagonist on the field will come later for him.
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