River Plate youth football coordinator Gabriel Rodriguez has admitted how quickly the club signed Julian Alvarez.

The Manchester City and Argentina superstar is now a World Cup, Premier League, and Champions League winner after a sensational season.

Despite being second fiddle for part of the season to Erling Haaland, Alvarez is a key part of City's future plans.

"Argentinos Juniors did not have the structure that River has in its youth football, nor the capacity to host Julian for at least a week of trials," Rodriguez told The Coaches' Voice.

"Alfredo was angry because Argentinos Juniors could not provide for the boy's maintenance.

"So I asked him for Julian's father's phone number. I was going to invite him for a trial at River without ever seeing him play.

"Now, back to that conversation with his father. After my introduction and his disbelief, I went on to tell him that I would like Julian to come and see the academy, and train with our youth teams. 'I have seen very good qualities in him', I said. 'And I really believe he could have a place within the institution'.

"His father said he would talk it over at home, with both his wife and Julian. After that, he would call me. One day later, he did just that – and said yes to my offer.

"Julian came to the academy for a trial. Within ten minutes of it starting, I got him signed."