Alejandro Garnacho's agent, Enrique de Lucas, is adamant that the Manchester United youngster will represent Argentina at international level and not Spain, hitting out at the Royal Spanish Football Federation.
Despite representing Spain at Under-18 level, Garnacho, through family connections, made the switch to play for Argentina at Under-20 level, making his debut in that particular age bracket in March 2022. Born in Madrid, the United ace was then invited to link up with the Argentina senior squad last year, getting the chance to rub shoulders with Lionel Messi, but was not awarded his debut, meaning he could still play for Spain.
After being fast-tracked into Erik ten Hag's United squad prior to the World Cup, there was an outside chance that he would make Argentina's World Cup squad. Boss Lionel Scaloni, however, decided to overlook the youngster.
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With that in mind, Garnacho is still yet to make his international debut at senior level, meaning Spain could still tempt him into playing for his country of origin. However, De Lucas has criticised the Spanish Federation for their management of the situation, insisting that his client only has aspirations to play for the 2022 World Cup winners.
"I think that Spain is a closed issue and there is no hiding it," said De Lucas, as quoted by Ole. " [It is] very bad management by the Spanish Federation, I don't know who, or I can guess who, but very bad management or very bad politics.
"And I think Garna is not going to be the only case in which a player with dual nationality could lose, I honestly tell you. And he decides to go with Argentina because he really feels it. For him it has not been a trauma at all, quite the contrary.
"When that possibility opens up for him, imagine being able to play with a team like Argentina, all his maternal family, his grandparents, he has felt them since he was little and for him it's not a problem, it's a blessing."
Last month, United refused to release Garnacho for the Under-20 World Cup that starts this weekend. Argentina wanted to include him in their plans for the tournament, but Ten Hag wanted to retain his services for the concluding part of the Premier League season and next month's FA Cup final against rivals Manchester City at Wembley.
Speaking at the end of April, Ten Hag explained: "We don't release him. He will return tomorrow in team training, partially. Then we will have to see when he can return totally in the training, and back into games."
Garnacho made his return from injury last weekend, scoring United's second in their 2-0 win over Wolves at Old Trafford. He will be hoping he is rewarded with a starting berth when they visit Bournemouth on Saturday.
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