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Emi Buendia’s dream of playing for the Argentinian national team has become a reality, with the 24-year-old included in Lionel Scaloni’s squad for their upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Chile and Columbia.
The recently named 2020-21 Championship player of the season has been the standout performer for the Canaries this season, featuring 41 times. In a remarkable season, Buendia has scored 15 goals and assisted a further 16 goals for his teammates as the Canaries romped to the title and secured promotion back to the top-flight.
Unsurprisingly, his personal performances have forged heavy links to some of Europe’s most elite teams, with many feeling the midfielder would need to depart Carrow Road to pursue a national team call-up.
However, Buendia becomes the first Argentinian from the Championship to get international team recognition since Fabricio Coloccini at Newcastle in 2009/10.
Although any speculation surrounding his future in Norfolk can be quashed for a few weeks, as the former Argentinian U20 international prepares to potentially lineup alongside one of his heroes Lionel Messi.
Before his move to England, Buendia was on the books at Getafe and played against Messi’s Barcelona in La Liga, losing 6-0.
Recently, the Norwich man revealed it was in this game against the Spanish giants that he had an open conversation with the Barcelona legend about his international allegiance, having in the past played for Spain at youth level.
Messi asked Buendia:
“What do you want to do? Do you want to play for Spain or Argentina?”
Buendia who reinstated his desire to play for Argentina replied:
“Of course I want to play for Argentina. I want to play with you – it is a dream.”
When one of the greatest players of all-time recognised Buendia’s raw talent from a young age, it is even more mind-blowing that he joined Norwich for a fee of just over one million pounds only three years ago.
Buendia has three caps at youth level for the South American titans, scoring one goal. All of his appearances came between December 2014 and December 2015, but the playmaker has had to wait six years for a senior call-up.
He is now joining up with a squad featuring Sergio Aguero, Angel Di Maria and Lautaro Martinez, which will only further aid his development. These are individual stars who play for some of Europe’s most elite teams and have amassed multiple caps on the big stage for their country, a nation that has won the World Cup twice.
Everybody associated with Norwich City hopes he will be in a green and yellow shirt next season, as Daniel Farke’s side aspire to establish themselves as Premier League mainstays.
For Buendia, it offers him another chance to properly showcase his talent on the highest level, having registered a disappointing one goal return as Norwich suffered a fifth Premier League relegation.
Nobody would be surprised if the young star got a big-money move, particularly if he can introduce a new dimension to an ageing Argentinian national team and nail down a starting place ahead of a potential World Cup tournament in 2022.
Crucially, he must maintain his discipline on the pitch; this has been a consistent issue throughout his career.
Four red cards in the past three seasons is an astronomically high figure for a creative player, but it often boils down to his South American passion for the beautiful game getting the better of him, which is not necessarily a negative thing.
If Buendia does pull on the famous jersey famously associated with the late and great Diego Maradona, then undoubtedly his profile will grow even further, and more people will become aware of the scale of talent he possesses.
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