It is a small story that has taken on a bit of a life of its own in Qatar.
Pep Guardiola and a selection of his players having a chat on the training ground at the Etihad campus early in the season. Spain’s Rodri is in the conversation, as is Bernardo Silva and Ruben Dias, of Portugal.
They are talking about likely World Cup winners, bigging up their own chances and highlighting Brazil as tournament favourites.
But Manchester City’s manager sees the shy Julian Alvarez out of the corner of his eye and knowingly points at his striker, as if to say … you’re the one, you can do it. Pep knew, Pep knows.
Alvarez is an identikit Guardiola player, a non-stop whirl of energy, endeavour, pressing, darting, running. mischief. You can imagine Guardiola likes Erling Haaland, for obvious free-scoring reasons, but absolutely loves Alvarez.
You can imagine Haaland was a must-have for the Manchester City executives, Alvarez was a must-have for the Manchester City coach. It was not just his quite spectacular involvement in all three Argentina goals that made Alvarez stand out in this intriguing semi-final, it was his work-rate, his dynamism.
He never gave a Croatian defender, or midfielder a moment’s rest, essentially putting in his own graft and, for good measure, quite a bit of the astounding Lionel Messi’s. It was a breathless performance.
Quite simply, the 22-year-old’s legs are the legs that Messi needs, the legs that allow the seven-times Ballon D’Or winner to operate at his own pace. It is becoming oddly enthralling to see one of the greatest ever footballers - if not THE greatest ever - do little for longish periods in a match.
There is a chance the Argentinian keeper, with his pacing to and fro, covers as much ground as his captain during some matches.
But, of course, the genius does not need to rack up the miles when he bursts into spellbinding life and does things like he did for Argentina’s third.
And he does not need to put in the hard yards when Alvarez is doing it for him, when Alvarez is consistently getting beyond back lines and winning penalties as he did to help break the deadlock in the Lusail Stadium.
Alvarez is the man Enzo Fernandez looks for time and again and, on this occasion, it ended with the City striker having the nous to make sure he got clattered by the keeper after getting his shot away.
Argentina’s second goal was all down to the perseverance, at some considerable pace, of Alvarez. You would be hard-pressed to find a World Cup goal as spectacular that also includes a couple of fortunate ricochets.
There was nothing fortunate about Alvarez' second and Argentina’s third and it featured a wonderful, dazzling gesture of gratitude from the GOAT for his first half spot-kick. On this occasion, Alvarez - who cost Manchester City little more than £12million - showed the poacher’s instinct that earned him a good strike rate at River Plate.
And soon after Alvarez had scored his fourth goal of the tournament, Lionel Scaloni, the Argentina manager, called him in for a well-earned rest. As well as Messi, the ultimate game-changer, Scaloni knows he has someone else whose brilliance could win Argentina another World Cup.
Pep knew, Pep knows.
