Take a deep dive into the suburbs of Buenos Aires and you will find one of Argentina's most historic sporting institutions.
"In the days of the legendary coach Ramon Madoni, it was the best baby football club in Argentina," Victor Ariel, who has spent over 20 years coaching in the surrounding neighbourhoods, tells the ECHO.
Ariel is in full flow as he discusses Buenos Aires' most celebrated youth football club, Club Social Parque. And for good reason too, as members of its alumni include Carlos Tevez, Juan Roman Riquelme and Esteban Cambiasso.
Earlier this month, Alexis Mac Allister became the latest Club Social Parque alumnus to dominate the headlines in his homeland as he completed his move from Brighton and Hove Albion to Liverpool.
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"It’s a dream come true," said the 24-year-old as he held the No.10 Liverpool shirt aloft at the club's AXA Training Centre. "It’s amazing to be here and I can’t wait to get started."
For Mac Allister, the move to Anfield came at the end of a whirlwind three-and-a-half years. After returning to the Amex Stadium in January 2020 following a spell with Boca Juniors, he quickly faced a lone battle against the hardships of a nationwide lockdown in a foreign country while speaking little English. Nevertheless, the midfielder's final chapter on the South Coast was spent as a World champion before he finally helped the Seagulls secure qualification to the Europa League for the first time in their history.
To some, his climb to stardom came as a surprise with Liverpool forced to act swiftly to fend off competition from both Manchester United and Chelsea. But not to Fernando Batista, who had predicted such after playing a key role in Mac Allister's life from quite literally the moment he was born in Santa Rose, La Pampa, on December 24, 1998.
"I was there when Alexis was born," Batista, who now serves as the manager of Venezuela's national team, tells the ECHO. "I watched him accomplish every step in his life. From learning to walk; his first shot with a football; his first game at Club Parque; and thousands of other moments.
"I am his godfather, and my relationship with him is great. I love watching him grow and seeing him accomplish his dreams along with his brothers [Kevin and Francis]. I have great affection for all three of them and they are a very important part of my life. He is a person I am very fond of, but football has always made me maintain a professional bond despite the great family affection that there is.
"As a kid, he had a love for competing and wanted to win everything. He gave his all from a young age so that together with the teams he played for, he could win. He always looked to stand out. He was different from his brothers, he had different motions; his playing style was very particular for his age. All these things led us to believe Alexis had a promising future."
Founded in May 1949, Batista's father was one of the brains behind Club Social Parque's decision to expand from a basketball club into the world of football, and more specifically futsal. But while working as a technician in Buenos Aires, his father did not receive a salary for his coaching of the junior sides, which later proved to be a conveyor belt of talent for the national team, and instead continued his involvement due to his unequivocal passion for the sport.
Born in 1970, Batista would, like many of his childhood friends at the club, enjoy a professional career in Argentina's Primera Division for clubs including Argentinos Juniors and San Lorenzo.
And despite his own career as a makeshift defender concluding at Club Atletico All Boys in 2001, the foundations laid out by his father would later aid the development of Mac Allister when his own father, Carlos Mac Allister, would spend his weeknights during the early 2000s taking all three of his sons to sessions at the junior club in the country's capital.
A few years later, with such talent regularly being unearthed in the province of Buenos Aires, an alliance was formed with the city’s second-tier side Argentinos Juniors to enhance the chances of youngsters like the Mac Allisters achieving a professional career in their homeland.
Juan Pablo Sorin and Fernando Redondo, who later enjoyed careers for Barcelona and Real Madrid respectively, would be the first of Madoni's students to make the switch to Argentinos in the late 1970s. From there, on such transfers became routine in the region as the professional clubs would swoop for those uncovering their talents at the renowned junior club.
During his time as a coach in the district, Airel's teams pitted their wits against players who would go on to become some of Argentina's greatest exports. That included the teams of Paris Saint-Germain's Leandro Paredes and Chelsea's Enzo Fernandez who, in January, became the most expensive Premier League signing of all-time after joining for £106m from Benfica.
"I believe that neighbourhood clubs are essential for a player's development, and the passion that characterises us Argentines so much is lived at all times in these neighbourhood teams clubs like Club Social Parque and Parque Chas," says Ariel of the importance of youth football in his homeland.
"Players from both Club Social Parque and Parque Chas, where Enzo Fernandez, [Gonzalo] Montiel and others played, left the neighbourhood clubs and have become players of First Division teams like Boca Juniors, River Plate, Velez Sarsfield and San Lorenzo. These clubs are very successful because they are able to attract the best players from all over Buenos Aires. And because of this the training and matches between these rival junior clubs, it creates an incredible competition."
Soon it would be Mac Allister's turn to tread the prominent path into the professional game as he joined Argentinos Juniors after a short spell at amateur outfit Club JJ Batista. It was during his time with the latter that his godfather, Batista, recalls first recognising the midfielder's introverted personality despite his unmistakable mastery with a ball at his feet.
"I have never told this story, and it is the first time it has come to light," recalls the 52-year-old. "Once in J J Batista, I was going to play the 1997 age group on an 11-a-side field, no longer on futsal pitches. One of the players was missing due to flu and by chance Alexis had come to watch the game . The coach and I wanted to convince him to play for the older age group because we needed him.
"At first, he was very shy. He didn't know his team-mates and he didn't want to! But the coach of the team and I proposed a deal. If he played the game, we would give him 10 packs of figurines. Such was the case, Alexis put on his boots and entered the field. We won the game and he scored two goals in an age group [one year] higher than his and in which he had never played. The packages somewhat motivated him!"
Fast forward a few years later and Mac Allister's progress with Argentinos Juniors was rewarded when he was handed his debut aged just 17 in October 2016. And, after tallying over a half-century of appearances for the Buenos Aires outfit, the then 20-year-old was on his way to the Premier League as Brighton and their meticulous data-led approach, headed by former sporting director Dan Ashworth, alerted them to his talent.
The two clubs agreed on a deal in the region of £8m in January 2019 and Mac Allister penned a four-and-a-half-year contract with the Seagulls before immediately returning to his homeland, signing on loan with Argentinos and later Boca Juniors, to improve his chances of one day obtaining a work permit in England.
Twelve months later, however, and after tracking his remarkable progress in the Argentine top-flight and Copa Libertadores with Boca, Brighton agreed to pay the South America giants a fee in the region of £800,000 to recall Mac Allister from his planned season-long loan. The midfielder would make his debut under Graham Potter in March 2020 during the final round of Premier League matches before the league's three-month hiatus due to coronavirus.
Upon completion of a first full campaign in England a year later, which included 21 appearances for the Seagulls, July 2021 would see Mac Allister selected by Batista, who was Argentina's under-23s manager at the time, for the rescheduled 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Reflecting on their reunion, Batista recalls how those at Brighton had pleaded with Mac Allister to turn down the opportunity to represent Argentina at the Olympic Games because of the impact it would have on his availability during pre-season. Despite the frustration, though, he considered the plea as a sign of Mac Allister's growing influence in the Premier League.
"Alexis was one of the players who planned to play with the team at the Tokyo Olympics. I remember he stood above Brighton to make sure he was not absent from his national team," recalls Batista.
"The move from a team like Argentinos Juniors to Boca [Juniors] did not hinder him at all. The jump to the Premier League was not the same, but Alexis' mental and footballing capacity took precedence over those big changes. He dedicates a lot to himself as a professional and therefore such changes are noticed very little.
"Of course he had his adaptation process. At the start at Brighton, he was on the substitutes’ bench at times and was rotated a lot, and it was even rumoured by some that he could depart the club. But he never doubted himself and when he gained confidence and settled down it was impossible for anyone to stop Alexis. His perseverance and desire lead him to compete to the fullest."
Now, with the ink still fresh on his first contract as a Liverpool player, Batista has no doubts that the 2022 World Cup winner will take his game to new heights under the schooling of Jurgen Klopp over the course of, what he expects to be, a successful career at Anfield.
"After the way Alexis played at the World Cup, I don't think he will have any problems playing and not living up to what a great coach like Jurgen Klopp is going to ask of him," adds the Argentine. "I have no doubts that Klopp will make it easier for Alexis and help him improve in many aspects.
"He is prepared and trained for these situations and will adapt quickly given his excellent conditions. He is a player who has got to where he is for a reason. He is really a great professional and that makes him a very complete and functional player for the positions he plays in."
At 24, the latest chapter of Mac Allister's remarkable career has taken him to Anfield where he will hope to return Liverpool to the summit of both the English and European game.
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