Who is Valentín Carboni, the player who amazed Messi, will play in the Copa América and chose Argentina over Italy

Valentín Carboni began his career in Lanús, emigrated to Europe with his family and is the big surprise on Lionel Scaloni’s list of 26.

Lionel Scaloni announced the list of 26 players who will represent the Argentine National Team in the Copa América 2024, and the big surprise was the inclusion of Valentín Carboni, a 19-year-old attacker who debuted with the senior team in March of this year and amazed Lionel Messi with his level in the friendly against Guatemala. Learn the story of the young left-hander who will be present in the United States.

Valentín Carboni was born on March 5, 2005 in Buenos Aires and is the son of Ezequiel, former player and coach of Lanús. Together with Franco, his older brother, He began as a footballer in the Grana youth team.but in 2018 his parents made the decision to emigrate to Europe and he had to continue his career at Catania in Italy.

However, its high level quickly made the Inter set their sights on him and signed him for their youth team at just 13 years old.. In the Nerazzurri youth team he showed all his quality, which earned him a call-up for the youth team of the Italian National Team because he has that nationality because of his family.

Even though he did not reject it and was in several call-ups, the footballer was always clear that he was going to play for Argentina and when the time came to choose, he did not hesitate to wear the Albiceleste shirt. “Without discrediting everything experienced in the Italian National Team, the truth is that as a dad I appreciate it, but Argentina is Argentina”declared his father in dialogue with Radio La Red last year, when he received his first call.

A few months after his first call-up to the Argentine National Team, which was debuting the World Champion title in March 2023, Inter decided to loan Carboni to Monzaanother Serie A team, so that he can add minutes and have more shooting than he was going to have at his club.

In this season, The Argentine played 31 of the 39 games that Monza played in the year, in addition to scoring two goals and providing four assists. He was a substitute in the first games, but from matchday 10 onwards he always added minutes, either as a starter or coming off the bench.

In this last tour prior to the Copa América, Carboni arrived as a surprise and everything seemed to indicate that he was not going to make up the final list of 26. However, Through training he earned his place on the team that faced Guatemalaand far from shrinking, he was decisive in attack, generating a penalty for Argentina.

After his great presentation, Lionel Messi himself filled him with praise: “He has a great future, present and future, we have to take advantage of it as well as many boys who come with great strength“In addition, the Flea commented that “I had seen him in the Under 20 but he grew a lot: he is a different player, much more trained and with tremendous quality.”

Now, the 19-year-old attacker will fulfill his dream of playing in an official tournament with the Argentine National Team. knowing that he is part of a team that will validate what was done in 2021 against Brazil. He probably will not start the Copa América as a starter, but Scaloni has shown that there are no fixed options in his team and Carboni can be an alternative in case a match does not go as planned.

As mentioned previously, the 19-year-old youth started against Guatemala in the last friendly prior to the Copa América. Carboni stood in the right sector of the Argentine attack, he was active during the 60 minutes he played and was key for Argentina to turn the result around.

The Monza footballer entered the area and was knocked down by a Guatemalan defender, so the referee whistled a penalty for the Albiceleste. Lautaro Martínez took charge of the execution and scored the partial 2-1.