Javier Pastore Reflects on World Cup and Enzo Fernández's Rise

Javier Pastore leans back, smiles, and watches another World Cup unfold from a different angle now. No longer as “El Flaco” gliding between the lines for Argentina or PSG, but as an insider, a representative, and a sharp observer of a game he still reads with ease.

The setting is Miami, at an AFA event tied to the federation’s global academy project. The subject, though, quickly drifts from the stage to the pitch: Enzo Fernández, Lionel Messi, Real Madrid, PSG, and a World Cup that refuses to follow the script.

A World Cup that bites back

“I’m watching a very competitive World Cup,” Pastore says, and the word “competitive” carries weight. He has seen supposed underdogs stand their ground, big nations sweat, and stadiums packed to the rafters.

Teams “we weren’t expecting much from” are making life difficult. That edge, that uncertainty, is exactly what he enjoys. Above all, he has lived every Argentina match intensely and likes what he sees.

“I’ve experienced all of Argentina’s matches, and I’m very happy with everything I’ve seen from the team,” he explains. The stands are full, the tension is real, and for someone who has worn that shirt, the emotional connection hasn’t dimmed.

Spain, France… and a dream final

Asked if a Spain–Argentina final — his two favorite countries — feels realistic, Pastore doesn’t hesitate to name the heavyweights.

“It would be a nice opponent,” he says of Spain. “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 message is clear: Argentina first need to arrive at that stage. Only then can they worry about whether it’s Spain’s passing carousel or France’s power and depth waiting on the other side.

Enzo Fernández, the chameleon in midfield

Pastore now represents Enzo Fernández, and you can tell he speaks about him with both pride and precision. The Chelsea midfielder has become a central figure for Argentina, and his agent sees a player growing into the tournament.

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

The conversation turns to roles, positions, and the evolution of Enzo’s game. Pastore has watched that transformation up close.

“Enzo has changed his position a great deal in recent years,” he 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.”

That detail matters. In a team built around Messi’s genius, Enzo is the one who dares to step into the final third, to link, to arrive. “He is a player who adapts very well to any type of position,” Pastore adds, underlining the versatility that makes him so valuable on the market.

Real Madrid on the horizon?

With that kind of profile, the obvious question comes: do you see him at Real Madrid?

Pastore doesn’t dance around the reality of the moment. The World Cup comes first.

“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 says. “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.”

No badge-kissing, no premature declarations. Just a clear admission: the camp is studying an exit from Chelsea, but no agreement exists yet. For now, Enzo’s horizon is measured in knockout rounds, not transfer windows.

The Madrid angle, though, refuses to disappear. Enzo has already said he likes the club, and the city has become a familiar backdrop in his life.

“He has many friends there, and he is very close friends with Julián Álvarez,” Pastore explains. “In the end, whenever they can spend time together, they are together there. 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?”

He laughs at his own line. “I never even played in Madrid... I even live there.”

It’s a revealing mix of honesty and distance: admiration for Madrid, ties to the city, but no concrete deal on the table. Not yet.

PSG’s new era, seen by one of its icons

From 2011 to 2018, Pastore helped shape PSG’s identity in the early years of the Qatari project. For many supporters, he remains a symbol of that first wave of glamour and creativity in Paris. So when he’s asked how long PSG’s current dominance in Europe can last, his answer comes with the authority of someone who knows the club from the inside.

“They have a squad to keep dominating, they are young, they have a lot of ambition to keep winning,” he says. The spine, in his view, is built not just on talent but hunger.

He reserves special praise for Luis Enrique, the coach who has already lifted the Champions League twice with the club.

“A coach who has understood the players and the club perfectly at the moment it was in,” Pastore says. “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.”

For a man who once carried the creative burden at the Parc des Princes, it’s a striking endorsement of the current project: young, ambitious, structurally stable, and led by a coach he clearly respects.

Then comes the final question, delivered with a smile: would he play for this PSG?

Pastore doesn’t miss a beat.

“No, not even close,” he fires back, laughing.

A legend content to watch from the outside now — guiding Enzo Fernández through a pivotal World Cup, weighing up a future beyond Chelsea, and keeping a close eye on a PSG that has finally become the European machine he once dreamed of powering himself.