Alexis Mac Allister called up to Argentina squad
We’ve got an Argentinian international. Kind of. The Albion’s Alexis Mac Allister has been called up to the Argentina squad for the first time for his nation’s September round of international fixtures.
Argentina are due to play two games in the United States of America. The first of those is against Mexico on September 5th in Los Angeles and the second takes place five days later against Chile in San Antonio.
Mac Allister’s inclusion comes as a result of Lionel Scaloni’s depleted attacking options. Lionel Messi is serving a three month ban from international football for accusing the South American governing body of “corruption” during this year’s Copa America because Argentina didn’t win it.
Sergio Aguero and Angel Di Maria have also been rested, meaning that Scaloni has had to turn to Mac Allister. The midfielder is currently on loan at Boca Juniors from the Albion.
The 20-year-old has has made quite the early impression with the Blue and Gold. He scored a stunning winner in Boca’s 1-0 victory away to Brazilan side Atletico Paranaense in their Copa Libertadores round of 16 first leg clash.
And although he has subsequently struggled for starts with Boca in the Superliga – playing just 15 minutes over their three games so far – many in Argentina predicted that he’d be a part of Scaloni’s squad due to the potential he has.
The call up is good news for the Albion as well as Mac Allister. Should the midfielder start earning caps for Argentina, then we would have a very strong case for lodging an appeal for him to be granted a British work permit as a young player who is breaking into a national side in the top 50 of the FIFA World Rankings.
That was how the Albion managed to secure a permit for Jose Izquierdo, who fell well below the minimum number of caps required over a 12 month period to automatically qualify.
If Mac Allister plays in both of Argentina’s games in the United States and maintains his place in the squad for October’s match with Germany, then we could be moving towards a position where he can actually play for Brighton in the 2020-21 season.
Should that not happen, then being a fully-fledged Argentina international will increase Mac Allister’s worth anyway, given the Albion a better chance of turning a profit on him – he cost £7m when signing from Argentinos Juniors in January – should any interested parties in South America or Europe – where there are less stringent work permit rules – become interested.
