world championship

Juan Carlos “Toti” Pasman is one of the most famous – according to others, the best known – for Argentine sports journalists. One thing is certain: Pasman didn’t really like Ángel Di María, winger for Juventus and the Argentine national team. Not enough to seize every possible opportunity to demand Fideo, the penniless Spaghetti, from the national team.

On one occasion, in a studio conversation on his TV show called DSports, he went so far as to beg national team captain Lionel Scaloni on his knees.

Let’s say it happened when Di María missed a glorious chance against Colombia in last year’s Copa América semi-final, which almost cost him a place in the final. Here’s the big deal at 2:20:

Penance after kneeling

At that point Pasman’s colleague fell to his knees and addressed the following words to viewers and to the captain of the national team Scaloni:

What have we fans done wrong by watching Di María constantly in the starting XI for thirteen years? Don’t enter it again! Sometimes when you replace him, he makes a face like you killed him. Do not call me anymore! Even now you only invited him because Messi convinced him to. All my esteem goes to him, he is a phenomenon, a star, a millionaire, a better player than all of us. But please, don’t start over in the national team!

But then the ice cream came back to lick. Di María, knocked to the ground, scored the winning goal for the Brazilians in the Copa América final:

In the World Cup final in Qatar, he first scored a penalty and then coolly gave way, with this goal Argentina took the lead 2-0:

The penalty kick at 0:50, his goal at 1:10.

And in any case Di María is a specialist in big matches, as can be seen from the table below:

So he apologized to Di María

Olympic champion in 2008, man of the match in the BL final 2014, won the League Cup in 2016, the Copa América in 2021 and the world champion in 2022. Need another question?!

Colleague Pasman didn’t even have to do it, publicly followed up by Di María in a message on Twitter:

I close the Di María case. I was wrong, I apologize. You are a star, Fideo! All the glory is yours, fully deserved!

In fact, he defined himself as a fan of Di María:

He then continued:

Sorry for doubting you. I haven’t been patient. I thought your time was over, as well as that of Higuain, Mascherano, Rojo, Biglia, Romero and Lavezzi, just to name a few. After the World Cup in South Africa, Brazil and Russia. But I was wrong. I already said it last year, after the Copa América final at the Maracana, and I repeat it now. Ángel showed in these two finals what a great player he is, that it’s not over yet, that he wants revenge, that he wants to break through the wall, and he succeeded, but how much! With the most important goals of his career, in Maracanà and Loszaíl, against none other than Brazil and France!

We don’t know if Di María accepted the apology…

(Cover photo by Ángel Di María on December 18, 2022. Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)