That little boy had a dream that he would meet Lionel Messi one day, take a picture, get an autograph. He is Julian Alvarez, who has set the Fifa World Cup on fire. He is a big Messi fan in his youth, now best goal partners and close to fulfill Messi’s dream dream of winning FIFA World Cup.
At the age of 12, the boy’s dream came true. A photo of the boy with Messi has been circulating on social media since last night. When that photo was taken 10 years ago, however, the boy’s dream had grown bigger. He also started dreaming of playing with Messi in Argentina jersey.
This dream of Julian Alvarez did not remain unfulfilled. In June last year, his dream of playing with Messi came true after being substituted in one of the World Cup qualifiers. How many players have come and gone in the Argentina team in the last decade and a half. Playing with Messi, this is perhaps the greatest story that some of them have to tell in their lives. But Alvarez didn’t want his story to end there.
The five-six-year-old boy used to play on the field with his elder brothers after school holidays, his association with football was from childhood. Alvarez ran with the ball at his feet, as if he was playing with eight legs like a spider, not two legs. The ball does not run! Seeing this, the older brother started calling Alvarez by the name ‘El Aranita’, which means ‘the little spider’. It also happened that on Saturday and Sunday his elder brothers used to go to play in the field, the referees who came to manage the match would ask, ‘Will that boy play today? That little spider?
The boy grew up day by day, his name changed from ‘El Aranita’ to ‘El Arana’. Not ‘little spiders’, just ‘spiders’. While playing in his hometown club Atlético Culchin, he received a call from one of Argentina’s two biggest clubs, River Plate. Alvarez, who joined Riverplate’s age group in 2016, joined the main team in 2018. Seven years before that, however, Alvarez went to Spain and survived a trial at Real Madrid. But at that time, FIFA’s law was that no foreign footballer could be signed under the age of 16. Alvarez did not go to Real either.
Manchester City finally got him whom Real Madrid did not get. Alvarez moved to Europe to play for City in July this year. At the time, Alvarez was gaining fame as Argentina’s new prospect, scoring 6 goals in one match for Riverplate in the Copa Libertadores, and making his debut for the national team.
For a long time, Argentina have been looking for someone to put Messi or anyone else in the net. Don’t be Gonzalo Higuain. Lautaro Martinez got that responsibility first in this World Cup. But in the first match against Saudi Arabia, he missed so much that it was understood that Lautaro would not be given. Julián Alvarez came to the stage at that opportunity. He scored himself, he can do it again. A pure striker or winger, can play anywhere in the attack.
Alvarez scored the first goal in the match against Poland in the group where Argentina had no chance to think about anything other than winning. He got his second against Australia in the last sixteen. Expectations rose soon after, becoming Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni’s first choice as a striker in the playing XI.
He knows when and where to be for the goal, and proved it by scoring his second goal against Croatia from Messi’s incredible pass. But before that, Maradona’s ‘one-man show’ in the quarter-final against England in the 1986 World Cup, which reminded him of the first goal, proved that he alone is enough to turn any defense upside down.
That’s why after receiving the man of the match award against Croatia, Messi said that Alvarez really deserves this award. Alvarez was waiting for such a day.
Argentina has one more match left in the World Cup. Messi too. The Argentine magician has won countless trophies throughout his career, only this trophy is elusive. Messi is running after his dream.
Once it was his dream to take a picture with Messi, now that boy is the companion of Messi’s dream.
