Javier Pastore Reflects on Argentina's World Cup Journey
Javier Pastore leans back, smiles, and talks about a World Cup he no longer plays in but still lives intensely. Two generations separate him from Lionel Messi, yet they once shared the same dressing room with Argentina. Now “El Flaco” has traded the No. 10 for a suit, representing Enzo Fernández and watching the next wave carry the flag he once helped raise.
We caught up with the former PSG idol in Miami, where the AFA is pushing its global academy project. The sun, the branding, the cameras – it all feels modern. Pastore, though, speaks with the calm of someone who has already ridden football’s wildest storms.
A World Cup that refuses to follow the script
“I’m watching a very competitive World Cup,” he says. No exaggeration. “Teams we weren’t expecting much from are putting up a fight.”
He likes the chaos. He likes the noise. Above all, he likes what he sees from Argentina.
“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.”
No tactical lecture. Just a former international enjoying a side that still feeds off Messi but no longer depends solely on him.
Spain, France… and a dream final
The conversation drifts to possible opponents. Someone throws out the idea of a Spain–Argentina final, a neat clash between his two adopted footballing homes.
“It would be a nice opponent,” Pastore admits. Then he sharpens the point. “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.”
He doesn’t get lost in hypotheticals. For him, the real story is Argentina surviving the minefield to even reach that stage.
Enzo Fernández, the adaptable engine
If Messi is the eternal reference, Enzo Fernández is the new heartbeat. Pastore sees it up close, not as a pundit but as the player’s legal representative.
“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.”
The role Enzo plays has evolved, and Pastore knows every step of that journey.
“Enzo has changed his position a great deal in recent years. 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 last line is the key. Argentina’s system flexes around Messi; Enzo is the one who bends without breaking.
Future talk: Chelsea now, Real Madrid later?
The obvious question arrives. A midfielder this complete, this young, this composed on the biggest stage – of course the transfer rumors swirl. Real Madrid’s name never stays quiet for long.
Pastore shuts the door on the short-term noise, at least publicly.
“Today the player is calmly thinking about the national team, 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.”
It’s a striking admission: they are exploring a way out of Chelsea, but nothing is advanced. No wink, no coded message. Just a clear state of play.
That said, the Madrid link doesn’t come from nowhere. Enzo has never hidden his admiration.
“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,” Pastore explains. “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 seduces players. It always has. For now, though, Enzo’s future remains a puzzle with no final piece on the table.
PSG’s new era, seen by one of its icons
Mention Paris and Pastore’s eyes carry a different kind of light. He arrived at PSG in 2011, before the club became a global machine. He left in 2018 as a symbol of its first great modern cycle.
From a distance, he now watches a version of PSG built to dominate Europe – and, crucially, one that has finally conquered it.
“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.”
That’s not nostalgia. It’s respect. Pastore helped build the platform; another generation is now collecting the trophies he chased.
Would he like to be part of this version of PSG, with a team that looks ruthless and complete?
The answer comes fast, with a laugh.
“No, not even close.”
The body won’t let him. The game has moved on. But his fingerprints remain on the club’s history, just as his voice now shapes the future of players like Enzo Fernández.
From Miami to Madrid, from Messi’s era to whatever comes next, Pastore stands in a unique spot: one foot in the past, one eye on the next great Argentine midfielder who might soon be lighting up another European giant.
