Claudio Echeverri Appears Stunning In Indonesia, Trusted By Defending Argentina At The 2024 Olympics

Claudio Echeverri contributed one goal for Argentina at the 2024 Paris Olympics (Instagram/@claudioecheverri_).

JAKARTA - Do you still remember Claudio Echeverri? The Argentina U-17 captain who stole the attention at the 2024 U-17 World Cup which was held in Indonesia.

He is now trusted to be in the Argentina squad competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics even though he is still 18 years old.

Echeverri has even appeared in two of the three group stage matches of Team Tango. Even though he left the bench, it turned out that he could make an important contribution.

In the last match of Group B against Ukraine, Echeverri contributed one goal in a 2-0 win.

In total, during the group phase he had packed 16 minutes of playing. In those two matches, Echeverri always entered in the 80s minute.

His work is likely to continue as Argentina qualified for the quarter-finals to meet France on August 2, 2024.

Claudio Echeverri has indeed been predicted to receive a wonderkid label, even Lionel Messi's successor.

Both like the number 10 jersey, the player who was born in Resistancia has attracted many of Europe's top clubs.

Performances at the 2023 U-17 World Cup are an affirmation of its talents. Even though it didn't bring Argentina U-17 to win, at least the game was ripe.

As captain, he led Argentina U-17 to fourth place in the 2024 U-17 World Cup. Echeverri received the Bronze Boot award thanks to a collection of five goals and two assists in 498 minutes of appearances at the tournament.

Interestingly, he scored three of the five goals against Brazil in the quarter-finals. At that time, Argentina won 3-0 to get a ticket to the semifinals.

No wonder, the club at the forefront of hijacking Echeverri is Manchester City. The Citizens had to rush to secure their signatures as soon as Indonesia's 2023 U-17 World Cup was completed because Barcelona were also aiming for it.

On January 25, 2024, Echeverri was introduced as a new player at Etihad. He was brought in from River Plate, a club that has been defended since the academy.

Claudio Echeverri was awarded a contract until June 2028. However, the attacker will still be at the River Plate until January 2025.

The 18-year-old is following in the footsteps of Julian Alvarez who moved to Manchester City from River in 2022.

Before anchoring to England, Echeverri had also been promoted to the first team of the River Plate. He has packed six appearances in all competitions in the 2023/2024 season.

In fact, five of the six appearances, Echeverri was started.

Former Manchester City defender Martin Demichelis is the one who gave Echeverri the opportunity to enter the first team of the River Plate.

Demichelis, who is the head coach of one of the big Argentine clubs, has not wrongly entrusted Echeverri.

Together with Argentina U-17, Echeverri has performed 23 times and scored 13 goals. He also won the confidence to train with the senior national team.