Manchester City forward Julian Alvarez has a long way to go before he can be classed as a ‘world-class’ player, according to former Premier League champion Paul Ince.
Now, there can be no doubting that he is on the right track.
Julian Alvarez, since joining Manchester City for a bargain £14 million during the summer of 2022, has added a Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League medal to his remarkable collection, not to mention the biggest prize in football.
But, as far as Paul Ince is concerned, there is still a lot to come from the World Cup winner with Alvarez yet to join City team-mates Rodri, Kevin de Bruyne and Erling Haaland in the game’s most exclusive club.
A Champions League and World Cup winner
“I don’t think Alvarez is world-class. Far from it, if I am honest. I think he’s a long way off getting to world class,” Ince, formerly of Man United, Liverpool, Inter Milan and England, tells talkSPORT (27 November, 12.50pm)
“(Just) because he won the World Cup with Argentina, that doesn’t make him world-class. The team is world class but that doesn’t make him world-class.
“I think he’s got a long way to go to prove that.”
The one-time Tottenham Hotspur target has seven goals and six assists under Pep Guardiola so far this season, the Robin to Haaland’s brutal Batman going about his business effectively in the shadow of his powerhouse strike partner.
Pep Guardiola thinks Julian Alvarez is ‘exceptional’
“If you play almost all the games to be world champion with Argentina, where there are a thousand, million exceptional players… if he is able to play there it is because he has something unique,” Guardiola says of the 23-year-old former River Plate talisman (Manchester Evening News).
“He is an incredible, exceptional player. Not just (when) scoring goals. He knows exactly where are the other players. And the movement, everything he does…”
Alvarez, even before his 24th birthday, has accumulated an incredible 13 trophies. He was even the Argentine division’s Golden Boot winner before joining Manchester City.
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