Aston Villa: Emi Buendia convinced to make Argentina switch by Lionel Messi
Aston Villa have plenty of interest at the World Cup and Emi Buendia is among the Villans in Qatar looking to achieve greatness.
The 25-year-old, who was born on Christmas Day, could line up alongside world superstar Lionel Messi when they face Poland in the group stages with fellow Aston Villa players Matty Cash and Jan Bednarek in the opposite dressing room.
Buendia previously played for Spain at the youth level but it was a conversation with one of the all-time greats, Messi, that convinced him to make the switch to the South American nation.
“He was close to me and he said to me ‘I know you’re playing for Spain but are you going to play for Argentina?’,” Buendia said to Sky Sports.
“I said to him ‘I want to play for Argentina and I want to play with you.’ He is my idol and for me, he is the best player in history.”
All the way
As they always are, Argentina are among the favourites to win the entire World Cup with the extreme temperatures of the Middle East thought to favour the South American sides over the European heavyweights.
If that proves to be true, Buendia could very easily return to Aston Villa after Christmas as a world champion having played a significant part in their road to success.
If he wasn’t already thanking Messi for his contribution to his career before, then he certainly will be after they’ve lifted the World Cup with the greatest of all time having to play out of his skin to get them through tight encounters.
Buendia will be joined by Villans goalkeeper Emi Martinez in Qatar with both likely to start their first game against Saudi Arabia and breeze through the groups with relative ease.
Cash and Bednarek will be hoping to make the knockout rounds at least while Leander Dendoncker could cause a surprise with Belgium.
In other Aston Villa news, the compensation fee Villa had to pay for Steven Gerrard from Rangers has emerged after financial reports were published.