“Come, horse, I have a question for you,” Alexis Mac Allister says to Nicolas González. The Liverpool midfielder carries the thermos squeezed between his body and arm and carries the mate in his hand. The Fiorentina left-footer approaches a fixed camera, where the question appears. The two dress like national team soccer players, with t-shirts, pants, socks, and cleats, but they seem disguised: they lack the field in the background and they walk on carpeted floors of some hotel. In the middle of the institutional photo session that was released on June 17, three days before the start of the Copa América 2024, the tournament organizers played to challenge the footballers.
The question is not about football or the competition, but rather it compromises the cultural standards of Argentina. He forced them to weigh the answer. Nico González did not respond and said, in a funny tone, that he was displeased with the question. It is the end of the video that was published on the official channels of the Copa América: it lasts just over a minute, it is set to music by the song The T and the M that exploded during the World Cup and invites the Argentine team to respond How do you prefer to live, without mate or without asado?
“Uh, how difficult,” replied Lisandro Martínez, before Enzo Fernández made a gesture of indefinition. Mac Allister agreed with “difficult” and Nico González developed: “Those questions are not answered.” The video shows how, little by little, the players responded and developed a light conclusion of what national gastronomic heritage preferences Lionel Scaloni’s team has.
“Mate in the morning can never be missing,” argued Nahuel Molina in his vote. The rest, beyond their vagaries, answered without justifying their response. Cuti Romero, Exequiel Palacios, Franco Armani, Julián Álvarez, Enzo Fernández, Nicolás Tagliafico and Leandro Paredes voted “no mate”. Lisandro Martínez, Nahuel Molina, Rodrigo De Paul, Nicolás Otamendi and Alexis Mac Allister, who was consistent in his choice with his mate in hand, chose “without roast.” The vote had twelve participants of the 26 that make up the team: those who preferred to live with asado and without mate won 7 to 5.; Leo Messi and Ángel Di María did not intervene; and Guido Rodríguez answered “with both.”
In that same photo session, a curious phrase arose while Messi and Di María posed in front of the cameras. The organizers of the event published pieces of the background of that process. They showed Rodrigo de Paul kissing a mini Copa América trophy, Julián Álvarez pointing to the competition logo and how in the communion, back to back, between the two top leaders of the squad, the most emotional moment of the match took place. session. In addition to the photo session, there was also film testimony. And the dialogue was heard between the stars and those in charge of the production.
“It’s the last one,” the Inter Miami attacker was heard saying. “Go Go. Shoot because it’s the last one, there’s no more Copa América, come on, come on” is heard in the voice-over, which brought some nostalgic smiles. “She is the last one, she goes, she goes. “Did she come in?” she asked before applause broke out. The joke makes sense: Di María has decided not to wear the National Team jersey again after this tournament to make way for the new generations and despite the fact that her teammates and even the coaching staff beg her to revisit the idea of she. What’s more, she did not define his immediate future either, given that on June 30 his relationship with Benfica ends and he did not close with any other club. There are talks for him to join Inter Miami in 2025. Or will he play six months in Rosario Central? Messi’s case is even more uncertain. What will happen to number 10 after the Copa América? It is the big doubt.
