2023-11-30 21:36:00
The Argentine team said goodbye to 2023 after the victory against Brazil at the Maracaná Stadium, but a very special date is approaching for the Albiceleste public on the eve of the first anniversary of the achievement achieved in the World Cup in Qatar. The final on December 18 against France at the Lusail Stadium still remains in the fans’ retinas and one of the heroes of that feat revealed behind the scenes of that duel with Kylian Mbappé as the protagonist.
The series of interviews launched by Star+ under the name of Campeones, a year later had Enzo Fernández in the first installment and one of the revelations of the team led by Lionel Scaloni told of a dispute with Kiki, who had a controversial reaction against his rivals running his fingers along his neck: “There were plays that we celebrated, like in a divided ball, and he made a gesture as if he was going to kill us. He took it out on me, I don’t know why.”
At that precise moment, a teammate came to his defense so as not to be intimidated by the Galos star: “There, Cuti (Romero)… I have a soldier behind me who defends me. When we score the third goal, Cuti shouts it in Mbappé’s face, he is crazy.” “Mbappé told me that he was going to kill us, that they were going to win the final,” he insisted when questioned by the host, Sebastián Vignolo.
The Chelsea midfielder was consulted for a strange moment before Lionel Messi took the 1-0 penalty in Qatar. There, Olivier Giroud and Aurélien Tchouaméni tried to prevent me from observing the Flea’s auction: “They wouldn’t let me see it. Crazy. I put myself between the two, they started to close in and wanted to push me back. How can you not let me see it?” Vignolo was surprised by his response as to why he had moved away from both of them to watch the shot: “I thought you wanted to go first in case there was a rebound…”. Enzo cleared up the last doubts he had in a laugh-out-loud story: “How is there going to be a rebound if that ball went in…”.
On the other hand, Fernández revived the award ceremony, where he won the statuette for Best Young Player, and joked when he observed how Emiliano Dibu Martínez (best goalkeeper), Messi (best player) and Mbappé (top scorer) had remained on stage to fulfill with the work of the photographers: “They had not waited for me for the photo. What was he doing? Oh, I had left because I went up first and they had kicked me out of the ceremony, ha. Mbappé was angry, he left angry.”
In an excerpt from the note, the 22-year-old midfielder smiled when he watched his first goal in the Blue and White against Mexico in the World Cup: “How crazy… Living through it is priceless. A relief because there were five minutes left and there was a lot of nervousness. Leo had told me ‘come and play’ to have her there. I remember that, when Leo gives it to me, I have the defender in front of me. I said ‘I’ll face him and shoot the center’, but when I threw the bike to go to the side I thought the defender was going to go one way and he went the other. There, I opened my foot. From behind, I already knew that the goalkeeper wasn’t coming.”
“After being world champion I had 500 easy messages between friends, family, acquaintances… I was responding, I tried to respond to everyone and I took my time because many people accompanied me on my path and it is important to talk to them,” he expressed. . And he added that he has not yet gotten the World Cup tattoo: “I have it pending. I already put it together, I’m going to do it on my leg and I’m waiting for the moment because it’s a place where I can’t play with pain.”
Emotion dominated Enzo Fernández’s narration, to the point of being on the verge of tears after watching a video with words of encouragement from his parents: “I’m going to cry… My parents are everything to me. My wife, my daughter and my parents… That’s my team. I always say the same thing. I remember that he would wake me up when I heard my old man get up and I would see how he left to work on his bicycle at six in the morning.” “Now I help them, I am always there for whatever they need and they know they can count on me at all times,” he said.
Finally, he referred to the best-looking footballers of the Argentine team after Vignolo told him that a “first level” competitor had appeared for Rodrigo De Paul due to the interviewee’s clothing. “No, no, Rodri is up there. He is Top. The ranking is De Paul, (Leandro) Paredes and, my friend, Ota (Nicolás Otamendi). Does Draw fight relegation? He is at the bottom of everything, last. Malvestiti? Yes, Ja”.
MORE STATEMENTS FROM ENZO FERNÁNDEZ
How he found out about his call to the World Cup: “I was about to take a nap at my house in Lisbon (at that time I was playing for Benfica) when a voice message came from a member of the coaching staff telling me that I was on the list. I knew that in those days I was going to go out, I had terrible anxiety, I couldn’t sleep at night. I immediately opened the message when I heard my cell phone vibrate. I heard it and, luckily, it was the news I had been waiting for.”
The unexpected problem that arose from that message: “Once I heard it, I wanted to forward it and it had a default setting that the messages were deleted. “It was deleted three hours after it was sent.”
* The elimination of Brazil in the words of Enzo Fernández
His debut in the World Cup in the defeat against Saudi Arabia: “It was a very strong emotional blow because we knew that it was important to start winning in the first game. The group did not expect it, we came with a lot of confidence, but the greatness and unity of the group was demonstrated. After that, there was a meeting and it was said that, starting from the second game, they were all finals for us. “That’s how we play them.”
The obligation to win against Mexico: “It was a difficult match because we depended on the result to continue in the cup. We knew it was a very important game for us emotionally. Luckily, Leo appeared with his magical left foot to open the result and we were able to win.”
His first start in the Albiceleste against Poland: “I took it as an opportunity to demonstrate, to make a presence because the coaching staff had trusted me to put me in the eleven. I did well, I gave an assist. Beyond that, the group always gave me comfort and confidence. “That was the most important thing.”
How they experienced Brazil’s elimination at the hands of Croatia: “We were watching the penalty shootout. I remember that, when Brazil was out, we screamed, we were happy and Scaloni came to tell us: ‘What are you doing, idiots? We have to play a game now.’ We know the rivalry there is, they are also very strong teams, but we think about ourselves. There were 10 minutes left before the game against the Netherlands started, and we were celebrating. It was a good emotional blow for us that Brazil was left out because they are a direct rival and play very well.”
Enzo Fernández starred in a spicy dialogue with Kylian Mbappé (Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
After becoming world champion: “It changed my life completely. It gave me the opportunity to come to Chelsea, the affection in Argentina is very different now. It is a pampering of the soul to be a champion with the National Team. Priceless. Now that I’m away, I always want to go to Argentina when I come back. I miss all the time. The affection is felt differently.”
Doubts about his future in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic: “I was always clear about my goals and stayed strong in my head. That was something important. My family always supported me, but it is a virtue of mine to be strong in the head because at that time I was in the River Reserve and I did not know what was going to happen in my future until the call came from Marcelo (Gallardo) telling me that the opportunity to go to Defense. It was a great opportunity for me.”
The resistance of those around him to leaving River on loan to Defensa y Justicia: “When I told my friends and family, they told me to stay in River, that the opportunity was going to come to me, but I felt that it was my chance to go to a First Division club, demonstrate with professional people and, at that time, River had a very large squad of many kids. It was the best thing to go to Defense.”
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