In just over a year, Enzo Fernández consolidated himself in the first for River Plate, adapted to European football with remarkable speed and agreed to the chance to play his first World Cup with the Argentine national teamwhom he rescued this Saturday with a great performance and a goal in the victory against Mexico (2-0): “He doesn’t measure what he achieves,” considered his father Raúl.
“I think it must be the unconsciousness of age, of his 21 years. I told him when he established himself in River and then in August of this year when we went to visit him in Portugal. He had played four games in Benfica and people applauded him standing up as if he were a player of the club for a lifetime”, his father proudly recounted in an exclusive dialogue with Télam’s envoys to the World Cup.
From the balcony of the house that lives in the most exclusive area of Doha, La Perla, Fernández reviews the family history in the Villa Bonich neighborhood, in the San Martín district of Buenos Airesand defines as “something dreamed of” the sensations that run through him this warm Sunday in Doha, with his gaze lost on one of the canals that recreate the Italian city of Venice.
Enzo received his first call to the National Team last September; he racked up 60 minutes between friendlies with Honduras and Jamaica and impressed DT Lionel Scaloni to ensure him a place in the list of 26 called for Qatar 2022. His official debut came in the defeat against Saudi Arabia, last Tuesday, and last night, in his second game from the bench, he was a figure and author of the last goal in the win that put the team back on track in FIFA competition.
“When he scored the goal, he wanted to hug me with all the people who were on the field. Then I hugged my wife, we cried and I couldn’t see anything else. Just today I saw Enzo’s goal celebration and how his teammates hugged him. That he is playing a World Cup today and that he scored that great goal is really a dream“, he admits excitedly.
Raúl Fernández recalls that Enzo had “a gigantography with Messi” in his home gym in Buenos Aires and he is incredulous about the praise received from the captain of the team. “To think that four years ago he chose Messi to play on the Play Station and now he shares the field with him”is surprised.
But he is more nostalgic for everything he has experienced to reach this splendid family present, with his son a figure in a Selection full of stars. “We are a humble family, from the neighborhood, we fought with him since he was 6 years old when he arrived in River. My wife took him to train every day by bus because we did not have a vehicle. They left at noon, after school, and returned at 6 or 7 in the afternoon, depending on how long the 28th took, because sometimes General Paz was complicated, “he recounts. “We suffered it, but now we have our reward. That Enzo is where he is, that he has achieved everything he achieved, based on sacrifice, is enormous happiness,” he admits.
In his youthful days, Enzo, from a fanatical River Plate family, had a tendency to gain weight and that made him doubt his sporting future: “When I was in 9th grade, one day he came to me and told me: ‘they’re going to let me free’. He always had technique but his physique was difficult for him. I answered him: ‘no, they’re not going to let you free’. We we are from River…”, he recalls with a “millionaire” chain and the shield tattooed on his calf. “Then there he realized that he had to be 10 pointswe went to a high-performance center that I found through a friend, he lost five kilos in a month, reached the eighth division and never stopped,” he recalls proudly. “His colleagues who have known him all his life still call him ‘fat’. He never wanted to show photos of the 10 years because he was all inflated“, he says with a smile.
The Enzo’s reality today is completely different. “After the game with Arabia we went to visit him at the concentration and I noticed that he was in a very good mood. He knew that in the short time that he had played he had responded well.”
Raúl will meet his son again the day after his big night in Lusail. He will be accompanied by his wife Marta, his daughter-in-law, his in-law, a granddaughter and the baby’s godfather, a friend of Enzo, who also came as guests to Qatar. “We will stay as long as Argentina arrives”closes with the illusion that that day is December 18.