Ángel Di María never went home. The summer of 2007 had been a good one. He was 19, and had spent a month or so in Canada, representing his country in the under-20 World Cup. He had excelled, scoring three times, and so had his team: Just as in 1995, 1997, 2001 and 2005, Argentina won the tournament.

So fast had his star risen that, when the plane carrying the team back to Buenos Aires touched down, Di María barely made it through passport control. “When we landed, he got off our plane and onto the one that took him to Europe,” said Hugo Tocalli, the coach of that team. “Really, straight onto it.”

Di María’s first stop was Benfica, the initial step of a journey that would take him to Real Madrid, Manchester United and, now, Paris St.-Germain. He was not the first member of that young squad to cross the ocean. Three of his teammates — including Sergio Agüero — had already been signed by European clubs. Nor was he the last: Within a year, nine more members of Tocalli’s team had been enticed away from Argentina.

“It was the same every time,” said Tocalli, who was part of the coaching staffs for all five of Argentina’s victories in that period. “We went to Qatar and finished as champion. We went to Malaysia, finished as champion. And after each one, the players would go to Europe, and then they would go on to the senior national team.”

Source: New York Times

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