Argentine journalist Gonzalo Bonadeo on trio's call-up

With Erik Lamela, Juan Foyth and Paulo Gazzaniga all on international duty with Argentina this week, we spoke with Argentine journalist and TV presenter Gonzalo Bonadeo to find out how the news went down in the trio’s homeland.

La Albiceleste kick off the first of their two friendly encounters with Mexico in the early hours of Saturday morning (12am UK time) at Estadio Mario Alberto Kempes in central Argentina before travelling west towards to the border with Chile to face El Tri in Mendoza at Estadio Malvinas Argentinas on Wednesday morning (again, 12am UK time).

Attacking midfielder Erik is back in the international fold for the first time since 2016, centre-half Juan received his first call-up just last month and Paulo was added to the squad last week, marking the goalkeeper’s first ever taste of international football and making it three Spurs players in the Argentina squad at the same time for the first time ever. Gonzalo is intrigued to see what our lads can produce…

Gonzalo on Erik

“We always hope to see Erik in the national team and we are always waiting for him to play as well for Argentina as he does in England. 

“We know he’s really talented and we know he can give the national team some solutions that they don’t have in specific places on the pitch.

“Even from the right side of the field, he could be really useful for the Argentina side.”

Gonzalo on Paulo

“To be completely honest, we didn’t expect Paulo Gazzaniga to be in the squad. He wasn’t really on the radar here in Argentina to be in the national team, but he has his chance now.

“Fans of Argentine soccer will know he left Argentina really young and has made a very good career for himself at Tottenham.

“It’s really good news for him. He might not be a 21 or 22-year-old keeper but he’s really talented.”

Gonzalo on Juan

“Juan Foyth is a different story. He is a young player. When he played for Estudiantes, he was not more than 19 years old when he left for England. We saw him as a really talented centre-back so it’s really good news that he’s involved.

“We thought he might have had his chance (in the team) even before these matches against Mexico, but we have good expectations about him when talking about the future.

“He has a special quality. It is very easy to see in Argentina a good centre-back who can play the ball from the back and be skilful. Nobody would be really astonished if he made the World Cup finals in Qatar 2022. He is a really good player. We know that, and he is growing up really well at Tottenham.”

Gonzalo in summary

“The first Argentine players that played in England were at Tottenham, Ricky Villa and Ossie Ardilles, so Tottenham since then has always been in and around the minds of football fans here – especially now, and not just because of the players but also because of what Mauricio Pochettino is doing there.

“In terms of the current squad, we can be surprised by Gazzaniga, we have expectations about Foyth and we believe Lamela could give Argentina some solutions, but for the team as a whole, we don’t have big expectations for what will happen against Mexico in these two friendlies.”