Tomás

Senior Editor @TheAthleticFC 1/3 of @EuroZoneShow Ambassador @NCTJ_news 🗣🇫🇷🇪🇸 Covering the World Cup in Monterrey this summer 🇲🇽 ⛰️

[IÑAKI WILLIAMS ARTHUER @Williaaams45]

Hermano,
Has ganado el mundial. Has hecho historia. 🥹❤️
Pero más allá del trofeo, gracias por esto: has hecho que millones de inmigrantes como nuestros padres se sientan orgullosos de que sus futuros hijos algun dia puedan vivir lo que tu has vivido y de que millones de españoles empaticen con nuestra historia que no es solo la nuestra sino la de todas las personas que dejan todo atrás por un futuro mejor, porque has tocado el cielo con los dedos y has demostrado que con trabajo y esfuerzo todo es posible.
Hoy el mundo te ha conocido mas si cabe y has puesto nuestro apellido en el infinito, por lo siglos de los siglos.

Te admiro. Te amo. Campeón del mundo ✊🏿🏆🥹

[Oliver Kay @OliverKay]

In a World Cup defined by chaotic games and big moments from the game’s biggest stars, the best team —emphasis on *team* — won.

In praise of Spain, a counterpoint to what Arsene Wenger once called the “fast food” ethos of international football 🇪🇸

https://t.co/RzDIR6jdVc

[MisterChip (Alexis) @2010MisterChip]

ESPAÑA ES VIGENTE CAMPEONA DEL MUNDO MASCULINA.
ESPAÑA ES VIGENTE CAMPEONA DEL MUNDO FEMENINA.
ESPAÑA ES VIGENTE CAMPEONA CONTINENTAL.
ESPAÑA ES VIGENTE CAMPEONA OLÍMPICA.

NO BUSQUEN PRECEDENTES DE ESTE HISTÓRICO POKER.

NO EXISTEN.

❤️🇪🇸

[Toni Kroos @ToniKroos]

Football won

[Tomás @tomas_hill]

Leandro Benítez once showed Messi a compilation of his best Barcelona moves.

"I asked him, 'Do you remember this, Leo?'... He said, 'Some yes, some no.'

"That lack of awareness, for me, is where what he does comes from."

Read the full interview here ⬇️

https://t.co/GoPtV5Gin7

[Tomás @tomas_hill]

“You think the end will never come but everything has an end,” says Benítez.

“For those of us who love football, he came to change all our lives.”

Read the article for free here ⬇️

https://t.co/VclYEb5LiS

[Tomás @tomas_hill]

“Very introverted and very shy, but incredibly lively.”

I spoke to Lionel Messi’s close childhood friend Leandro Benítez about his memories of the boy from Rosario.

Late-night chats about dreams, staying in touch on MSN and pride at seeing his success.

https://t.co/VclYEb5LiS

[Tomás @tomas_hill]

Benítez, Messi and their other close friend Lucas Scaglia kept in touch on MSN when he left for Barcelona.

Before an U20 game against Brazil, they asked him to put three fingers on his heart if he scored.

When he delivered on his promise, Leandro and Lucas “hugged and cried”.

[Tomás @tomas_hill]

“Very introverted and very shy, but incredibly lively.”

I spoke to Lionel Messi’s close childhood friend Leandro Benítez about his memories of the boy from Rosario.

Late-night chats about dreams, staying in touch on MSN and pride at seeing his success.

https://t.co/VclYEb5LiS

[Tomás @tomas_hill]

@SuExcelenciaCF Gracias José Manuel! Lo estaré viendo desde la oficina aquí en Londres ❤️

[The Athletic | Football @TheAthleticFC]

Few people knew the young Lionel Messi like Leandro Benitez, his team-mate at Newell's Old Boys & close childhood friend.

He spoke to The Athletic about the late-night chats they had about footballing dreams, the day he came to say he was leaving for Barcelona and more.

📝 @tomas_hill

🔗 https://t.co/VglfLvCjUx

[Tomás @tomas_hill]

Argentina loves its national team — but how much?

From a church founded in Maradona's honour to a mountain 2,000 metres above sea level, I spoke to people across the country about what Messi and Co mean to them.

Free to read @TheAthleticFC ⬇️

https://t.co/wSng5SGEbM

[The Athletic | Football @TheAthleticFC]

Argentina is a vast country that stretches from deserts in the north to glaciers in the south.

But from spectacular waterfalls on the border with Brazil, to the church of Diego Maradona in Rosario, to icy Patagonia, there is one thing that unites the country: support for Lionel Messi and the national team.

@Tomas_Hill spoke to fans all over the country to find out what Argentina’s World Cup run means to them.

🔗 https://t.co/iXSY0TgWK3

[Tomás @tomas_hill]

Argentina loves its national team — but how much?

From a church founded in Maradona's honour to a mountain 2,000 metres above sea level, I spoke to people across the country about what Messi and Co mean to them.

Free to read @TheAthleticFC ⬇️

https://t.co/wSng5SGEbM

[Tomás @tomas_hill]

I spent a surreal few hours with football collector Gabriel Bustamante and his 20,000 match-worn shirts, boots and more when I was in Monterrey.

No contest for the best item: a half-smoked Diego Maradona cigar.

Free to read @TheAthleticFC ⬇️

https://t.co/WIqv98Kgy0

[The Athletic | Football @TheAthleticFC]

If there is one item which sums up Gabriel Bustamante’s extraordinary dedication to collecting football memorabilia, it is a half-used Diego Maradona cigar.

Maradona had just lost a 2019 play-off final with the Mexican second-division side he was coaching at the time, Dorados de Sinaloa, when Bustamante spotted him smoking the cigar on his way out of the stadium. When Maradona threw what was left of it under the team bus, Bustamante got down on his knees to rescue the relic smoked by El Diego.

The Argentinian asked what the collector was doing, to which he replied “Diego, it had your DNA — I had to conserve it”. Maradona simply turned to his assistant and said: “This guy needs more therapy than me”. He gave Bustamante the sunglasses he was wearing, too.

A few hours in the company of Bustamante, 59, is enough to make you realise he has hundreds of stories like this among his 20,000-strong collection of match-worn football shirts, boots, pennants, trophies, books, medals and more — all stored in a basement in Monterrey, Mexico.

📝 @tomas_hill

🔗 https://t.co/87vQGjLUHd

[The Athletic | Football @TheAthleticFC]

'Lamine Yamal's already — if not the best — among the top five of his generation.

'But for me, he is different. The next 15 to 20 years belong to Lamine, if he wants.

'If he wants them, they are his.'

In his latest column for The Athletic, Xavi talks about Lamine Yamal 🌟

🔗 https://t.co/I27y5AyKC9

[The Athletic | Football @TheAthleticFC]

Robot dogs have been helping Mexican police officers during the World Cup.

Equipped with cameras, night vision and a voice command system, they’ll continue to be deployed after the tournament, too.

How were they received? And what happened when an actual police dog crossed their path?

🎥 @Tomas_Hill

🔗 https://t.co/V1ogYKMWpy

[Tomás @tomas_hill]

What happened when I went on patrol with three police robodogs in Monterrey?

How the technology works, why they were introduced before the World Cup and why it seems they’re here to stay in Mexico.

Free to read ⬇️

https://t.co/N9IYXDMyay