-Good, Javier. How are you doing?
-All well here. Following the Club World Cup with interest.
–Real Madrid has signed Franco Mastantuonoa player who, as a figure and follower of River Plate, knows well. What can you tell me about this footballer?
-Stantuono has incredible quality and a spectacular technique. He has been there demonstrating his worth for months. As I like to say he has left the 'La Masia de River', another of the best quarries in the world. There they have worried about educating him in every way, starting with the football, but also influencing the staff. Franco has the palate of the River players, which is a club that has had very large players. He is a colorful footballer who has earned fans quickly. As we say in Argentina it is “a different.” He really is a player with a personality and incredible self -confidence for someone who has arrived up with 16 and 17 years. We couldn't believe it when we saw him put him behind his back to a team from the River entity. You need to have a lot of personality to do that because large teams generate a lot of pressure in Argentina. And Franco is one of that type of players who assumes the leadership innate.
-They have a very well furnished head. It's true?
-That's how it is. Being so young, the best thing that can happen is to have a good head, have your feet on the ground and, as we say there, “the humility that everything has to have.” You can feel how well it is handled outside the court, how professional it is. He never had problems, he always behaved like a professional and now awaits a very good process, when he went to one of the big clubs in Europe. In Madrid you have to surround your family and friends and demonstrate that maturity that has shown so far in Argentina. We already know the personality he has and that will not change to come to Real Madrid because he has worked very well in a great Argentine football like River. In addition, Scaloni has already taken him to the national team and has a very promising future ahead. I am sure that Real Madrid's pressure will know and will not weigh the shirt because it comes from River, which is a pressure cooker and a club that demands results from day one. But he has already proven to have personality to assume it.
-Alga a Real Madrid under construction with Xabi premiering on the club's bench. What role do you think you will have in the new coach's scheme?
-It is uncertain because each technician has their way of playing football. I think the important thing is that it completes the adaptation it has to have, because South American and European football are very different. And you will need that adaptation time. But it is going to surround great players in a club where the demand is maximum and will compete for a place in the eleven and for winning titles. I have no doubt about that. And that is a challenge for someone who feeds on those challenges. Xabi's Madrid is going to fight for the Champions League and will try to make an excellent year. I am sure they will carry it little by age, since it needs to adapt, but Xabi is very intelligent and is going to get all the performance. He is an exquisite footballer of excellent technique and will learn a lot from Xabi.
-Do you have already peeked out to the selection will it be good or will put more pressure?
-One has to pay in your club, and then go to the National Team. Franco has not yet had continuity with the albiceleste because he just begins, while Real Madrid will be the other way around. He will have to look for a place and pay to the maximum in his club to be able to go to a selection that is very high level. Young people with incredible maturity are coming out and when Messi, Otamendi or Di Maria leave, all these kids will have the task of making the replacement.
-You say that football in South America is very different from that played in Europe. Can it spread a little more on that?
-In South America, the ball is driving, here on Europe the court is always wet and the pace and ball are faster. In all teams there are important players and all rivals are great size. For me the adaptation was easier because the best thing that came to my style was to have a fast football with spaces. That rhythm came to me wonderful, but he will have to adapt more to the rhythm. Although he is an intelligent player and will do it quickly.
-Who looks like Mantantuono playing?
-I would tell you that he has things from James and D'Alessandro. He is not an excessively fast footballer, but he has an intelligence and ability that allows him to win that second to the rival. In River he was playing extreme stuck to the right, but the rivals with skill was getting off and physically became strong. He is a player who is clearly in progress. You have a lot to give, many issues in which you have a margin of improvement. It does not look like Aimar because Pablito had a distorted rhythm. He put from 0 to 100 in nothing. Franco is more thinking, more skilled, but he has less explosive.
-Do you see a long race in Madrid?
-It is difficult to answer because we already know what big clubs have. For what it transmits, for its quality and personality and for the maturity with which it is handled with the young age it is, it invites you to think that it will be. He does not seem to be a 17 -year -old boy and that will play in his favor. He is a footballer to have a performance of many years in Europe because quality and maturity is left over.
-Part me that I ask you for others of the clubs you have played, Barcelona. How have you seen this season?
-The Barcelona has completed an incredible year. The Champions escaped, but then won everything they have proposed. He has played great football this year and has been one of the best in Europe. What Flick has achieved is very remarkable. The discipline of the boys when playing with that advanced defense and, above all, how it has made all players give to the highest level. It doesn't matter if they were the headlines or those who came out for them, everyone has given their best version and that seems complicated to get. That speaks very well of the technician. I think that Xavi's hand was first, because it was the one who took the boys to the first team, and then Flick has managed to give that maturity and discipline they have with their football and that has made all young people grow so much.
-Flick has found a treasure in the Masia.
-All the boys of the Masia have done an incredible job, this maturity of these young people is seen, very trained despite the early age they have to handle the pressure around. CubarsÃ, Lamine, Casadó, Marc Guiu … I have no doubt that they offer huge possibilities because I worked in the youth with them and I know how in the Masia they care about giving them tools to carry well what happens on the grass and especially what happens outside of it. Barca and River have the best quarries right now.
-And how explains Lamine's appearance?
-With Lamine a curious thing happens. We have the feeling that we have already seen everything from Lamine, when in reality he is only 17 years old. He has amazed us all this year. The football he has practiced is spectacular. He is among the best in the world and will give Barça a lot of joys and the selection because as time goes by, he will feel better and will be a better footballer. It is something similar to what happens to Mastantuono. I think Lamine is going to mark an era.
-Do you see the Golden Ball with 17 years?
-Golden Gold? You have to leave it and wait. The problem is that he plays at a level that places him among the best in the world now and that is why it is logical that he sounds like a candidate. But the good thing is that in the future it will be better yet. I have no doubts.
-Coil thank you, Javier.
-It is always a pleasure to always talk about football.