Argentine midfielder #11 Angel Di Maria celebrates scoring his team’s second goal during the Qatar 2022 World Cup final football match between Argentina and France at the Lusail Stadium in Lusail, north of Doha, on December 18, 2022 .
Photo: AFP – JEWEL SAMAD
The one with the spicy left foot that dribbles like in the pasture. The one who draws hearts with his fingers to shout his goals. The owner of the “11” albiceleste. Messi’s silent partner. The Rosario Noodle. The one who says goodbye to the Argentine team in its last Copa América.
Di María is the one with the heroic goal against Nigeria in Beijing-2008 that earned him an Olympic gold. It is the agonizing goal against Switzerland that opened the door to the quarterfinals in the 2014 World Cup. It is the historic goal against Brazil at the Maracaná in 2021 with which Argentina once again conquered America.
That elusive dribbler who emerged in the Rosario Central hotbed was the same one who scored 2-0 in the dance (3-0) that the Albiceleste gave to Italy at Wembley in the Finalissima in mid-2022, a kind of premonition of what that would be about to happen in Qatar.
So it was. His crowning goal came in the 2022 World Cup: the 2-0 win over France, in the 36th minute, in the unforgettable final in the magnificent Lusail, when he completed the best collective play of the World Cup, which with one touch involved Nahuel Molina, Alexis Mac Allister, Messi, Julián Álvarez, Mac Allister again, until finishing on his blessed left foot.
Three months after turning 16 years after a match against Paraguay in Buenos Aires in the qualifying route for the 2010 World Cup, which marked his debut in the senior team, Di María’s cycle in the Albiceleste comes to an end in the Copa América of United States-2024.
The history
In 2008, a skinny and lanky 20-year-old boy was beginning to attract attention in Europe when he destroyed the Portuguese defenses with Benfica’s colors with pure dribbling.
What Fideo, now 36 years old, did not imagine is that that match against Albirroja, in which he was only in the first 45 minutes, would be the beginning of a long path of successes and disappointments with the national team, of which he always He was a protagonist for better and worse.
“The America’s Cup [de Estados Unidos-2024] It will be the last time I wear the Argentine shirt,” was Fideo’s announcement on its social networks on November 23, 2023.
And he allowed himself the luxury of doing so in an unforgettable setting for him and for the Albiceleste: the Maracaná, where minutes before Brazil suffered its first defeat as home team in the history of the South American qualifiers.
“(…) with all the pain in my soul and feeling a lump in my throat, I say goodbye to the most beautiful thing that happened to me in my career, dressing it, sweating it and FEELING it with all the pride,” that message concluded.
footprints and shadows
Di María conquered the Argentine fans with key goals in top games, but that same demanding fan base stoned him mercilessly when the Albiceleste’s titles were slipping from the Albiceleste’s hands and injuries appeared at the most inopportune moments.
For this reason, in the celebrations at the Maracaná after beating Brazil in the 2021 Copa América final, he did not forget the regrets: “Many people told us not to return, but I kept banging my head against the wall. Thank God it happened.”
A muscle injury left Fideo out of the lost 2014 World Cup final against Germany.
“I sincerely wanted to play that day, even if my career was over,” he confessed years later.
After coming out on top against Switzerland, Di María suffered a muscle injury against Belgium in the quarterfinals, leaving the match half an hour into the game. That would be his last appearance in Brazil-2014.
But the curses did not stop. Two injuries punished him when he was playing in the finals of the 2015 and 2016 Copa América against Chile. The physicist did not accompany Fideo. Luck did not smile on Argentina either.
Dressed in albiceleste in 140 games, Di María will play his sixth and last Copa América in the United States. Messi’s eternal silent partner is the team’s seventh all-time top scorer with 30 goals, and is two away from fifth place held by Maradona.
Six finals played, three unforgettable titles. But the best thing about Fideo is that he knew how to engrave a heart drawn with his fingers on each trophy.
