With Lionel Messi as captain, Argentina nationwide staff gained the 2022 World Cup with a squad stuffed with gamers who had flown below the radar for years earlier than the event. After lifting the trophy, a former FC Barcelona prospect revealed that one in every of his Albiceleste teammates as soon as failed a trial with the membership — and did so with a blunt evaluation: “He was very unhealthy.”
Again when he was 17 and nonetheless a part of Boca Juniors’ youth system, Nahuel Molina traveled to Spain for a trial hoping to make the leap to Europe, particularly with one of many recreation’s greatest golf equipment. Nevertheless, one participant who did move that trial, Éric Montes, later claimed Molina fell nicely wanting the usual Barcelona anticipated.
In an interview with Spanish outlet Publish United, Montes recalled particulars of that trial a decade in the past: “Throughout one preseason, three Argentinians got here in for trials and didn’t meet the extent — they have been very unhealthy. I later discovered that Nahuel Molina was one in every of them.”
Despite the fact that the identities of the opposite two Argentines by no means grew to become public, Montes stated none of them matched the membership’s expectations to remain. He additionally highlighted the distinction between his personal path and Molina’s. “To point out you the way issues are, he was a ‘Matao.’ Take a look at the Matao now and take a look at me,” Montes added, utilizing Spanish soccer slang for a participant thought-about restricted or low-level.
Nahuel Molina of Argentina lifts the World Cup.
Whereas Montes remained at Barcelona’s academy after the trial, he by no means made his debut in Spain’s first division. In distinction, Molina ultimately broke by after becoming a member of Atlético Madrid in 2022 and went on to win a number of trophies alongside Messi with Argentina — a placing turnaround from that failed trial in Spain.
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Molina, Montes, and the Barcelona bubble
The careers of Molina and Montes function a reminder of how shortly a participant’s trajectory can change, even after time inside one in every of soccer’s most prestigious academies. Although he by no means debuted for Boca Juniors’ first staff, the Argentine proper again moved to Europe with Udinese in 2020 earlier than later becoming a member of Atlético Madrid to then conquer the World Cup, whereas Montes’ profession took a far totally different path.
He by no means broke into Barcelona’s senior squad and as an alternative went on mortgage to lower-division Spanish golf equipment comparable to Peralada, Cultural Leonesa, Albacete, Gimnàstic, and Manresa earlier than retiring at 27 due to a critical knee harm. “You permit the Barcelona bubble and begin to understand what actual life is,” he mirrored.
