JUL IN THE CROWN
Nicknamed Spider, City’s new £22.5m striker was destined to be world star after scoring a rabona aged nine Real Madrid missed chance to sign River Plate wonderkid, who admits: I like to play across WHOLE frontline
JULIAN ALVAREZ’S first coach knew he had a player on his hands when Manchester City’s new striker was just two years old.
Alvarez was a toddler in the sleepy agricultural Argentine town of Calchin when his dad Gustavo took him to watch his older brothers turn out for local junior side Club Atletico.
Rafael Varas, delivery driver by day and coach of Club Atletico by night, could not believe his eyes when he saw this kid, who had just learned to walk, kicking a ball like he was born to it. It seems he was. Alvarez, who is 22 tomorrow, is about to follow in the footsteps of compatriots Sergio Aguero, Pablo Zabaleta, Carlos Tevez and Nicolas Otamendi by signing for the Blues in a deal that could net River Plate £22.5million.
City plan to loan him back to the Buenos Aires club until the summer.
Varas recalled: “Julian was always with a ball and even then he was like the person he is today – only in miniature.
“He is a very quiet person, very responsible and focused. Playing football has always been so natural to him.
“I remember one goal, when he was about eight or nine, when he beat four or five rivals and scored a rabona goal.
“That’s when I realised we had a different kind of player, who could be a world star.
“I was not his teacher. How can you teach a player like Julian? You can only advise.”
Varas was reduced to tears in the autumn of 2020 when
Alvarez’s father turned up outside his house with the keys to a new van.
The striker had heard the car his former coach was driving to deliver groceries was not big enough – and he could now afford to provide a solution after emerging as a star at River Plate.
Alvarez is seen by many as the man to replace Aguero – and he is already a regular for Argentina.
Aguero, City’s record goalscorer, hit the net 260 times during a decade of glory. But Alvarez insists: “I have never been obsessed with being just a goalscorer.
“I am not a box striker, I like to get on the ball and start from deep positions.
“I like to play along the entire attacking front. There is no one way to define me. I can play the game in several different ways.”
When Alvarez was 11, he began to attract attention from Real Madrid after a local referee had alerted the club’s South American talent scout
Piero Foglia to his talents. By now he had been nicknamed ‘Spider’ by one of his siblings because “when he played football, it was like he had more than two legs”.
Alvarez spent a month in Spain playing for one of Real’s youth teams – even featuring in a game against Barcelona when Pep Guardiola was in charge at the Nou Camp.
He was introduced to Sergio Ramos and Angel Di Maria as part of the charm offensive.
But Spanish regulations meant Alvarez could only accept Madrid’s offer of a contract if his family moved to
Europe to be with him, so his father packed their bags and booked flights back to Argentina.
Madrid’s loss was River Plate’s gain.
Marcelo Gallardo, the highly rated River coach, recognised Alvarez’s potential and gave him his senior debut at 18.
He came on as a substitute in the second leg of the 2018 Copa Libertadores final against Boca Juniors as River Plate triumphed 5-3 on aggregate.
But it was only when injuries forced Gallardo to use Alvarez as a central striker that he began scoring goals with a consistency that alerted Europe’s top clubs.
Alvarez was part of the Argentine squad that lifted the Copa America last summer.
And when his agent Fernando Hidalgo was despatched to Europe to gauge interest in his client, City moved immediately.
Gallardo said: “Alvarez is a player that we coaches love.
“Any coach in the world would love a player like him.”