Javier Pastore Discusses Enzo Fernández's Impact at the World Cup

Javier Pastore leans back in his chair in a Miami hotel, a long way from the Parque de los Príncipes but still very much at the heart of elite football. Two generations younger than Lionel Messi, a World Cup teammate of the No. 10 and a cult figure at PSG between 2011 and 2018, “El Flaco” now moves in a different space: he is the legal representative of Enzo Fernández, one of Argentina’s midfield pillars.

The AFA has come to Florida as part of its global academy expansion. Pastore has come to watch, to work, and to talk. The World Cup dominates everything.

“I’m watching a very competitive World Cup,” he says, eyes lighting up at the thought of it. “Teams we weren’t expecting much from are putting up a fight. I like seeing all the stadiums full; I’ve experienced all of Argentina’s matches, and I’m very happy with everything I’ve seen from the team.”

The former Elche and PSG playmaker knows the rhythms of a tournament. He has lived the pressure, the expectation, the suffocating scrutiny that follows Argentina everywhere. This time, he is watching one of his own clients carry part of that weight.

Enzo in the spotlight

Enzo Fernández arrived at this World Cup under the glare that comes with a big-name move and a Chelsea shirt. Pastore, though, sees a player thriving in the chaos.

“He is well, very positive,” he says. “He is having a very good World Cup, in the first two matches he helped the team win comfortably.”

It is not just the performances that intrigue Pastore, but the way Enzo has reshaped himself over the last few years. The role has evolved; the influence has grown.

“Enzo has changed his position a great deal in recent years,” Pastore explains. “He has played much deeper or as a midfielder getting into the box. Here with the national team he starts deep, but in the end he is the only midfielder who gets up to the attacking line and stays close to Messi. He is a player who adapts very well to any type of position.”

That detail matters. In a team built around Messi’s genius, the midfielder who dares to step up alongside him, who links the lines and breaks into the box, often decides games. Pastore sees in Enzo a modern all-court player, one who can sit in front of the defence and, in the same breath, arrive near the penalty area as an extra attacker.

Madrid whispers and a Chelsea exit

With that kind of profile, speculation is inevitable. Real Madrid’s name hovers over almost every elite midfielder in Europe, and Enzo is no exception. Pastore, now on the other side of the negotiating table, chooses his words carefully.

“Today the player is calmly thinking about the national team,” he insists. “He is playing in a World Cup, he is very close to reaching the round of 16... He is only thinking about that and we are looking at possibilities to leave Chelsea, but there is nothing firm or confirmed at any club.”

The key phrase lands quietly but firmly: “possibilities to leave Chelsea.” No drama, no grand declarations, just a clear admission that the future is open and that the London chapter may not last.

And Real Madrid? The attraction is obvious, and Pastore does not deny it.

“He has many friends there, and he is very close friends with Julián Álvarez, and in the end, whenever they can spend time together, they are together there,” he says. “And I also live in Madrid. Every time he traveled, he traveled to see me and to sort out work-related matters, but besides that: who doesn’t like Madrid? I never even played in Madrid... I even live there.”

The city pulls players in. Lifestyle, football, friendships. For Enzo, the connection is already there, even if there is nothing signed, nothing agreed. For now, the World Cup takes priority. The market will wait.

Spain, France and a dream final

Pastore has lived in both Spain and France, worn the shirt of Argentina, and understands what it means to stand on the edge of a World Cup final. When asked about a Spain–Argentina showpiece, he doesn’t hide the appeal.

“It would be a nice opponent,” he says. “I think France and Spain are the toughest opponents we could end up facing in a final, so let’s hope we can make it there, because that’s the most important thing.”

The sentence hangs in the air: France and Spain as the great obstacles, Argentina pushing to be there at the end. Pastore, like every Argentine abroad, feels that tension between admiration for rivals and the relentless hope that his country will be the one lifting the trophy.

The PSG chapter and Luis Enrique’s empire

Mention PSG and Pastore’s expression changes again. Paris shaped his career and his legend. The club he joined in 2011, at the dawn of the Qatari era, is not the same giant that now marches across Europe under Luis Enrique.

“They have a squad to keep dominating, they are young, they have a lot of ambition to keep winning,” he says. “A coach who has understood the players and the club perfectly at the moment it was in, he has won the Champions League two years in a row, he has truly done incredible things and I think he is going to continue along that path. Luis Enrique is a coach with tremendous ambition and the club has made everything available to him to keep achieving great things.”

From the inside, Pastore knows how hard it is to bend a dressing room full of stars to a single idea. From the outside, he now watches a version of PSG that has finally cracked the code in Europe and shows no sign of slowing down.

Would he like to be part of this new PSG, this ruthless, trophy-collecting machine?

He doesn’t hesitate.

“No, not even close,” he answers, laughing.

It is a line delivered with the ease of a man who has already lived his Paris story and found a new role in the game. Now, as Enzo Fernández steps into his own era with Argentina and weighs a future beyond Chelsea, Pastore is no longer the one threading passes between the lines.

He is the one helping decide where the next pass in a career should go.