Alejandro Garnacho's star is on the rise. After being instrumental in Manchester United's Youth FA Cup win last season he has found himself as part of the first-team squad under Erik ten Hag this season.
And it seems that the Dutch manager has been impressed by the young winger as he was given his full debut against Sheriff Tiraspol last week. His performance was raw but it also showed his potential, as he drove past the Moldovan side's defense consistently.
Of course, Garnacho's potential had international teams fighting over him. He had played in the Spanish youth system but was eligible to play for Argentina through his mother.
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Ultimately Garnacho would choose to play for Argentina. Only a few weeks later he would be part of a mass training squad that would include a number of other young talents who they had added to the national team and also stalwarts like Lionel Messi.
But it turns out that a former rival of United may have had a massive say in Garnacho's future.
And Nick Cox, Head of Academy Operations at United, revealed, via The Athletic, that Liverpool and Argentina legend Javier Mascherano had a massive say in Garnacho's international future: "Before he (Garnacho) made his final decision, there was a conversation between myself, Darren Fletcher, Javier Mascherano (Argentina's under-20 head coach) and other representatives from Argentina.
"We're saying, 'He's a really young man. We'd really love to know your plans'. They are saying, 'This is what we've got in store, this is how we think it pans out for him'. It was a really nice call actually."
Given that Messi has announced that this World Cup will be his last international tournament with Argentina, Garnacho will unfortunately not be able to share the pitch with both him and Cristiano Ronaldo in his career, unless Lionel Scaloni springs a surprise and brings him to Qatar for the competition.
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