Alejandro Garnacho is steadily building a reputation for himself as a player who attracts the spotlight with his every move.
The Madrid-born sensation managed to rattle a large section of Barcelona’s social media fan base when he celebrated Manchester United’s win over the Catalans by copying Pedri’s trademark celebration.
After the full-time whistle, Garnacho then took to social media to share a post with the caption, ‘The big team goes through,’ adding further fuel to the fire. Antony scored the winning goal but it was the 18-year-old who trended on Twitter.
Earlier this month, Garnacho received his first international call-up for Argentina’s friendly fixtures against Australia and Indonesia. He came off the bench in both games, didn’t manage to register any goal or assist, and did little with the ball to make headlines.
Yet after Argentina’s 2-0 win over Indonesia, he was the centre of attention at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium. Several fans ran towards the youngster to take a selfie with him.
The camera angle captured Enzo Fernandez standing on the sidelines and staring – seemingly in disbelief – at the fans circling Garnacho for a photo. The moment gave fans on social media enough ammo to make their favourable points.
Twitter user @the_marcoli_boy was quick to claim that the photo was a piece of evidence enough to conclude Garnacho is ‘bigger’ than the Chelsea midfielder. Others added that he couldn’t “believe his eyes.”
The former Benfica superstar was one of the most impressive players in Qatar and lifted the award for the best young player for helping Argentina win the 2022 World Cup. Just over a month later, he joined Chelsea in a record-breaking move. As such, it’s reasonable to wonder why Garnacho, who wasn’t even part of the World Cup-winning squad and only made his national debut a few days ago, attracted most of the fans.
Most Twitter users, especially the ones who support Manchester United FC, were quick to use this moment to highlight the club’s ‘pull’.
Playing for England’s most successful club certainly does wonders for one’s profile. Garnacho is four years younger than Fernandez and has a lot fewer trophies than his counterpart to show for; still, he has only 2.5 million fewer followers than Fernandez on Instagram.
The limelight isn’t always positive though. The popularity means that Garnacho is also on the end of more criticism whenever he drops any bad performance or United lose. When his side got knocked out by Sevilla in the Europa League, Barcelona fans didn’t forget his sly dig at Pedri and made sure to mock the starlet.
