Lisandro Martinez has told Spain to “forget about” trying to convince Alejandro Garnacho to switch his international allegiance from Argentina.
The attacker has been called up to the World Cup winners’ squad for March’s international break having yet to make his senior debut for his country. Garnacho - whose mother is Argentine - was born in Madrid and qualifies to play for Spain.
The Spaniards are trying to persuade the 18-year-old to swap shirts before reaching the numerous Fifa watermarks whereby changing international teams is not permitted. However, United teammate Martinez is having none of it and has told Spain to bin their ploy.
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Speaking to TyC Sports, he said: "The truth is that Garna is an excellent boy, with a lot of personality because he is 18 years old and is starting in a very big team and with a lot of pressure, you have to have personality, right?
“That's what I like about him, he's going to play headline or enters 10 or 15 minutes and gives the best of him. [Garnacho] is with me here, forget about it. I'll make sure [he plays for Argentina]. The only way is to go there with me."
Garnacho has four goals in four under-20 appearances for Argentina having been handed his youth debut by Javier Mascherano in 2021, six months after making his bow for Spain’s under-18s.
Garnacho was handed his first senior Argentina call-up in March 2022, training with the first-team which included Lionel Messi. Martinez joins him in the latest squad call-ups with the world champions playing friendlies against Panama on Thursday, March 23 and Curacao on Tuesday, March 28.
Speaking earlier in the week, Lionel Scaloni said any place Garnacho gets would be based on merit. He added: "We don't look at the card, we don't look at the age, we look at the merits.
“We can be wrong and people in some cases think that one is better than another, but we go to the merits and if you are 17 years old and very well and we believe that he has to be, he will be. And if he is thirty-odd and we think that he has to be, he will also be there."
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