How Champions League could decide £100m Alvarez's future
His brother Rafael started calling him 'La Aranita' - the Little Spider. When he played on the neighbourhood pitch, 50 metres from his front door, no-one could get the ball off him. He seemed to have too many legs.
Opponents from other villages would show up asking: "Is La Aranita playing today? " The name stuck and his teachers were the only people who ever called him Julian. Aged 11, he impressed in a trial with Real Madrid, but returned home anyway, a decision he calls one of the most formative of his life.
At 15, a River Plate scout named Juanjo Borrelli needed only one training session to decide that this kid from a tiny Cordoban town had to come to Buenos Aires. Borrelli told him he would start on the bench but he did not stay there for long. River Plate made Alvarez.
In one extraordinary Copa Libertadores performance against Alianza Lima, he scored six goals in a 8-1 win, which announced him to the world. Playing for one of South America's giants, where winning every game is an obligation, forged the competitive instinct that now defines him. "Once you're at River," he said, "you can never lose a game without it hurting you.
" From River Plate, he went to Manchester City in January 2022. There he won the Champions League in his debut season, becoming part of Pep Guardiola's machine and thriving within it. He was 23.