The Asturian Álvaro Fidalgo (29 years old) may be the only Spaniard (ignoring Javier Aguirre’s coaching staff) who sneaks in, If ‘El Vasco’ gives him minutes, in the opening match of the World Cup that Mexico and South Africa will play.
The story of this midfielder who He went through the youth teams of Sporting and Oviedo, and definitively trained as a footballer at Real Madrid Castilla.it’s incredible. If there is a name that made Álvaro Fidalgo’s World Cup call possible, apart from the boy’s merits, It is the Argentine Santi Solari who was, in addition to Raúl, the coach who relaunched him as a creative midfielder in Castilla, and the same one who later bid for his signing in 2021 for América de México after an unsuccessful year at Castellón in the Second Division. “Going to Real Madrid when I was 14 made me be an adult from a very young age, It made me mature very quickly and see things in a different way,” he recently expressed in an interview with MARCA.
Fidalgo: “I am very proud to be Asturian and Spanish, but Mexico gave me special affection”
Santi Solari trusted him from nowhere and, little by little, He made a place for himself in the 2023-24 three-time champion América, being one of the players of the year in those seasons. Fidalgo, who had never worn La Roja, aroused the interest of the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) in 2024, which He waited patiently for his Mexican nationalization to summon him for the first time.plowed the ‘Tri’ last March. “Solari called me to play for América and I would say that he saved me; what I found there I never thought I would ever have in my life, I thank him every day,” he told MARCA.
Curiouslyboth the president of the FMF, Mikel Arriola, and the coach, Javier Aguirre, have Spanish origins (Basques), but what brought AF to Tri was his quality as a midfielder for an América that passes for being the ‘Real Madrid of Mexico’.
In this opening match, The now Betis player could be, or not, a starter. It is not clear. But it does seem evident that he will have minutes in Javier Aguirre’s scheme during the championship.
Fidalgo is one of the six players on the Mexican team who were not born in Mexican territoryalong with Obed Vargas (Alaska); Quiñones (Colombia); Santiago Giménez (Argentina); Brian Gutiérrez (USA).
And this is the curious story of Álvaro Fidalgo who, before Betis, barely played for Castellón in Spanish professional football. Álvaro, in the interview in MARCA, expremark this: “I am proud to be Asturian and Spanish, but Mexico gave me a special affection.”
