The rise of Alexis Mac Allister with Brighton & Hove Albion is accelerating.
The Argentina international midfielder’s importance to the team has never been greater, with the World Cup in Qatar now just a week away.
The new contract signed by Mac Allister last month, until June 2025 with the option of an extra year for the Premier League club, is indicative of how the 23-year-old has become such a key component at the Amex Stadium.
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Brighton also had an option year in his previous deal, which was due to expire next summer. Despite the comfort of that protection, they were keen to resolve his long-term future.
Originally signed under Chris Hughton almost four years ago, Mac Allister has become an increasingly valuable asset.
Read more: Argentina World Cup 2022 squad guide: Can Scaloni help Messi to the perfect ending?
He was involved in 33 of last season’s 38 Premier League games as Brighton ended up in ninth place under Graham Potter, their highest top-flight finish. Marc Cucurella (35 appearances), Leandro Trossard and Joel Veltman (both 34) were the only outfield players who featured more often.
Mac Allister’s growth has quickened this season, now that he has developed from a multi-tasking midfielder into a specialist.
Since the summer sale of defensive shielder Yves Bissouma to Tottenham, Mac Allister has operated with Ecuador’s Moises Caicedo in a South American double pivot, both under Potter before he left for Chelsea in September and also for his Italian successor Roberto De Zerbi.
He has started all 13 league games in this campaign, contributing four goals, behind only Trossard (seven) and Pascal Gross (five).
The faith De Zerbi places in Mac Allister to accept possession in tight areas from goalkeeper Robert Sanchez or one of the central defenders to progress the play is reflected by the number of passes he’s made and the influential nature of the handful of Premier League midfielders above him in this category.
MIDFIELDERS MOST PASSES
PLAYER
| TEAM
| PASSES
|
|---|---|---|
Manchester City | 1,107 | |
Tottenham | 857 | |
West Ham | 849 | |
Wolves | 815 | |
Leicester | 796 | |
Brighton | 738 |
It’s been a gradual process of progression for Mac Allister since he was signed from Argentinos Juniors for £8million ($9.3m) in the 2019 January transfer window and loaned straight back to the Buenos Aires club.
A second loan, to Buenos Aires giants Boca Juniors, was supposed to be for the duration of the 2019-20 season, but Brighton brought him back early, during the January 2020 transfer window.
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They secured a work permit and paid Boca around £500,000 in compensation to cut short the loan, then another £175,000 after relegation was avoided in Potter’s first season in charge.
It was difficult for Mac Allister at first in England. His arrival was shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic brought months of lockdown in the UK and he struggled to establish himself.
“The first year at Brighton wasn’t easy for me,” Mac Allister admits. “I wasn’t playing regularly, then the (Argentina) coach (Lionel Scaloni) decided not to pick me for a few games.
“Then I started playing here and I became a different player: a better player, a better human being. That was the moment I said to myself I was ready to play here and in the national team.
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“The first year here was very important for me to realise that I had to do more than I was doing. It wasn’t nice, but that is what makes good players when you have those downs, to try to pick yourself up and train every day to be a better player.”
Mac Allister’s improvement with Brighton has gone hand in hand with him developing into a regular member of Scaloni’s Argentina squad this year.
It is now just a question of how much game time Mac Allister will get at the World Cup after, as expected, he was named in the final squad of 26 yesterday.
A hamstring injury suffered by fellow midfielder Giovani Lo Celso while on loan to Villarreal in Spain from Tottenham has ruled him out of Qatar 2022, improving Mac Allister’s chances of minutes.
Argentina are hoping Mac Allister will help add the World Cup to the Copa America they won in 2021 (Photo: Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images)He’s an alternative for the No 6 spot to Sevilla’s 34-year-old Papu Gomez.
Mac Allister, undaunted by that possibility, says: “I grew up playing as a 10 and I played for a lot of years in that position, but I feel really good playing as a six.
“The position doesn’t matter to me. The most important thing is to try to help my team-mates, and help my team to win games.”
Mac Allister will erase 38 years of family hurt by making it to Qatar.
His father, Carlos, played the full 180 minutes alongside Diego Maradona as Argentina beat Australia 2-1 on aggregate in a November 1993 play-off to qualify for the following year’s World Cup in the United States.
Carlos wasn’t selected for the finals by coach Alfio Basile, who would resign after Argentina lost the services of talisman Maradona in a drug scandal mid-tournament and were then knocked out by Romania in the last 16.
Mac Allister says: “They played the play-off against Australia. They won it, he was in the starting XI, and then the manager decided not to pick him.
“It was tough for him. He was ruled out of the World Cup just a week before. All he has transmitted to me is how important it is to be in a World Cup — what he felt at that moment.
“He was so close to getting into the squad, but he couldn’t do it, so he wants me to do everything I can and then the most important thing is to enjoy it.”
Mac Allister’s presence alongside the talismanic Lionel Messi for the national team is another talking point with his dad.
The Brighton man says of 35-year-old Messi, for whom Qatar is likely to be his last World Cup, “He’s my idol. I always have this conversation with my father.
“He played with Maradona, he loves Maradona, but for me, Messi is the best player in the world.
“We know how important this World Cup is for him (Messi) and as a team, we will do everything we can to lift that cup. We know that maybe it’s the last one for him, so we will do our best to win it.”
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World Cup 2022 Group C guide: Argentina's fast starts, ageing Mexico and possession-shy Poland
Mac Allister will have another Argentinian for company at Brighton come the New Year.
The signing of 17-year-old attacking midfielder Facundo Buonanotte, currently a team-mate of Mac Allister’s older brother Francis at Rosario Central back home, has already been announced for the January transfer window.
Mac Allister turns 24 on Christmas Eve — six days after the final in Qatar.
It isn’t beyond the realms of possibility that Brighton’s big improver will have a World Cup winner’s medal to show off to his countryman Buonanotte when he arrives in England.
Read more: Argentina beat Mexico 2-0 to stay alive in Group C play.
(Top photo: Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images))
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