With the start of the English Premier League, scheduled for next weekend, and the Serie A of Italian football, scheduled for Saturday, August 22, an exciting competition will begin that will involve two great Argentine players: Lautaro Martínez at Inter and Julián Alvarez now at Manchester City will fight inch by inch, each from his own team, to try to be the starting center forward for the Argentine National Team in the next World Cup in Qatar.
At first, there seems to be no doubt: after almost four years, Lautaro Martínez seems untouchable. He is the top scorer in Lionel Scaloni’s cycle with 20 goals and he has accumulated in all this time, the international filming that he lacked in 2018, when Jorge Sampaoli did not consider him to play the World Cup in Russia. In addition, the return of the Belgian Romelu Lukaku to Inter after an opaque season at Chelsea in England, will only benefit him: in the 2020/21 season they formed a powerful duo in which Lukaku’s physical power dragged the marks and opened paths for him . allowed him to contribute 17 goals to the consecration of his team as Italian champion. Lautaro should not prove anything. He just has to keep scoring goals as he has been up to now to be a starter in Qatar.
But If Julián Alvarez asserted himself as an option in City’s attack and, even coming off the bench, played continuously and scored with some frequency, he would give a fight to Martínez’s well-founded claims. The glowing praise that coach Pep Guardiola showered on him last week and the conviction that, even as an alternative to the imposing Norwegian striker Erling Haaland, he will be taken into account from now until the start of the World Cup, can strengthen the not too high-priority attention that Scaloni has devoted to it. The coach of the Argentine National Team has not stopped recognizing the great evolution that the Cordovan striker had since Marcelo Gallardo confirmed him in 2020 as River’s starting midfielder. But with the exception that he stood out against defenders from the local environment, very far from the physical and football aspects of the highest demand of international football.
That’s why, Julián Alvarez only played seven games in the South American Qualifiers (he started only on the last date against Ecuador) and was not in the Finalissima against Italy at Wembley from the start (he did in the friendly against Estonia). And until his arrival at City, it was not even certain that he would go to the World Cup. But from ten days to this part, the panorama seems to have changed. And pushed by Guardiola’s aura and, of course, by what he showed when he played, Julián Alvarez seems to have raised his profile. From the luxury showcase of City, now he can pretend not only to go to Qatar but to unseat the immovable Lautaro Martínez from the ownership. We will have to see how it goes for one and the other in each game. The truth, as always, will be on the green grass.
