Alvarez, the “little spider” from Argentina who studies Haaland and scores goals like Pelé – Corriere.it

LUSAIL
In Calchìn, two thousand inhabitants in the province of Cordoba, central Argentina, with three boys at home, the Alvarez family’s television was often tuned to football. And on two European teams in particular: Kun Aguero’s Manchester City and Leo Messi’s Barcelona. No one could have thought that the smallest of the three, Julian, called at age 4 Aranita«little spider»from the older brothers Agustin and Rafael for how he conquered the ball, he would go to play in Aguero’s City and bring Messi’s Argentina to the World final.

Why yes, it was little Julian, who is 22 today, who broke up the match against Croatia, which had been blocked up until then: after taking away Lautaro Martinez’s place (and keeping it after the less convincing match, the one with the Holland, despite the Inter’s having scored the decisive penalty), Julian throws himself quickly into the long ball from Enzo Fernandez (another talent who exploded here) and goes straight towards the Croatian goalkeeper Livakovic who can’t help but knock him down: and if Messi scores the penalty, five minutes later, on the counterattack, he needs a good ball in the trocar e
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Aranita this time he does it all by himself, he stretches it, shoots, wins a rebound, wins another, and puts Livakovic on. Unstoppable.

Game over, but since it’s better not to risk it, at the start of the second half this time Messi does everything, dribbles Gvardiol three times (Ole writes a «jugadon», while the Lusail stadium goes crazy for the D10s), puts her in the middle for Julian who scores a brace, before leaving for Dybala and embracing Lautaro on the bench, the most beautiful gesture. There is Messi who invents, but there are also his disciples who shine with their own light and not just reflected. That’s 4 goals at the World Cup for Alvarez, 7 in 17 appearances for the national team. Not bad. Some say that Julian, the third player to score a double in a world semifinal, after Kroos and Schurrle in 2014 and the youngest after Pele, is the Argentine Thomas Muller. He is certainly the prototype of the modern attacker: compact as he is (170 centimeters by 70 kilos) he has speed and solidity, he knows how to link the departments and one of the most recurring plays in Youtube videoskills is the reception with his back to goal on the frontline, one or two touches to follow to get rid of the defender, open spaces for himself or for his teammates. If he then happens to shoot, as we have seen, he knows how to do it. The Alvarez brothers played together in the village, but it soon became clear that the best one was the little one in the house: at the age of 11 he got on a plane for the first time in his life and he goes to try out for Real Madrid, and someone there is still despairing.

«A local thing», he will say. Because Alvarez lands, plays a friendly on the same day, scores several goals, they make him play in a tournament, they win that too, but then he goes home: «They could only register me from the age of 13, but my whole family should have transfer”. He doesn’t do anything about it, he allows himself a more peaceful growth and last summer for 21 million he moves to Manchester, where his parents and brothers also followed him.

Only now he plays in the Premier League with a certain Haaland and Rafa and Agu (who have temporary leave and cannot earn money) play for Manchester Abbey Hey in the North West Counties League First Division South, which is the tenth tier of English football. Julian often goes to see them. Think how nice it was to go on Boxing Day to the stands of the New Mills stadium (9mile souls), on the outskirts of Manchester, with the world champion medal around your neck.