Alexis Mac Allister has been confirmed as Liverpool’s first signing of the summer.
The Argentina international was the top priority for Jurgen Klopp, who wants more energy and dynamism in his midfield after the team’s underwhelming season.
His move to Anfield caps a remarkable 2022-23 campaign for Mac Allister, who was a World Cup winner in December and last month helped Brighton qualify for Europe for the first time in their history.
This is the story of how he became an elite midfielder, via the experiences that shaped him as a player and a man.
“We eat football, we speak about football, we watch football. It’s our way to live.”
Alexis Mac Allister was talking about the topic of conversation around the dinner table when his family get together. It was never any different. Born in the city of Santa Rosa in Argentina’s La Pampa province, he had a ball at his feet from the moment he could walk.
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His father Carlos was a combative left-back who played for Argentinos Juniors, Boca Juniors and Argentina; his uncle Patricio was a striker who also represented Argentinos Juniors. Alexis, like his two older brothers Francis and Kevin, dreamed of following in their footsteps. Their dad used to tell them stories about playing alongside his friend and national icon Diego Maradona.
By the age of five, Alexis was training twice a week on the small pitches at Club Social Parque, the academy in a working class district of Buenos Aires where Maradona, Carlos Tevez and Juan Roman Riquelme once honed their skills. As a Boca fan, he grew up idolising Riquelme.
“The boys lived in that club,” dad Carlos recalls. “Because first one would train, then the other, then the other, and you take them all and they all stay there. I think the three of them were born to be footballers because they grew up with everything that had happened to my brother and me as footballers.”
After a short spell at Club JJ Batista, Alexis and his brothers joined the youth ranks at second-tier outfit Argentinos Juniors.
As well as playing, the Mac Allister boys used to help their father with his scouting reports for Spanish club Osasuna. “One of the boys would follow one player, another would follow another player, the third would follow a third player — and we’d send reports on the teams from Argentina,” Carlos explains.
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Argentinos Juniors, based in a middle-class neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, produced Maradona and other illustrious names in Argentine football such as Riquelme and Fernando Redondo.
In October 2016, aged 17, Alexis was handed his senior debut against Central Cordoba and went on to score three goals in 24 appearances as he helped them win promotion back to the top flight.
The following season, all three brothers were involved in the same league game against San Lorenzo — a source of great pride for the family. “It was emotional and we look back on that day with a lot of fondness,” Alexis says. “We are so grateful because the club made us grow so much as people and players. It has a special place in our hearts.”
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The feeling is mutual.
Argentinos general manager Alejandro Roncoroni tells The Athletic: “The Mac Allister family is deeply rooted, since Alexis’ father and his brothers played for the club. They are very dear people to us. Alexis always captivated the fans. They identify with the way he plays and, since he made his debut in the first division, all the young people adopted him. We love him very much and we are closely following his career.
“Alexis is rather quiet and low-profile, although in private he has a lot of character. He is very funny and even somewhat rebellious, the same rebellion that he shows playing soccer.”
Alexis’ eye-catching performances for Argentinos — he scored 12 goals and contributed nine assists in 83 senior appearances — attracted the attention of Brighton’s South American scouts. The Premier League club’s data-led approach had also flagged him as a gifted youngster to monitor closely.
The reports were glowing and, in January 2019, Brighton secured his services for around £8million before immediately loaning him back to Argentinos for the rest of the season. Boca had also wanted to sign him but couldn’t match Brighton’s offer.
Without an EU passport and unable to secure a work permit in play in England, Mac Allister completed a season-long loan move to Boca, his boyhood idols, in the June of that year.
He scored on his debut in the Copa Libertadores, the South American equivalent of the Champions League, against Brazilian side Athletico Paranaense. After shining in a number of different midfield roles for coach Gustavo Alfaro, he was handed his senior Argentina debut by Lionel Scaloni in a friendly against Chile in Los Angeles in the September.
The following month Dan Ashworth, Brighton’s technical director, flew to Buenos Aires to watch him play in the semi-final second leg of the Copa Libertadores against neighbours and arch-rivals River Plate.
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Boca lost the tie 2-1 on aggregate but Ashworth had seen enough to be convinced that Brighton should take advantage of a window of opportunity to get Mac Allister on board earlier than expected. They agreed to pay Boca around £785,000 to terminate his season’s loan in the January. Mac Allister would still receive a winners’ medal, as Boca went on to clinch the Primera Division title two months later.
“It was very difficult for Alexis to make that decision, but it was a decision that had to be made,” father Carlos says.
“He couldn’t play in England without meeting three or four requirements that, at that point in time, he met: having played for the national team, having played an international cup (at club level), and having had regular playing time for the team he was being transferred from.
“To be able to play for Brighton, Alexis needed special permission from the federation (the FA), and they gave that to him. He felt very happy because Brighton came looking for him, but it wasn’t easy to leave Boca. If he hadn’t left Boca then, it was possible that he wouldn’t have been able to in the July, because he would have had to meet all those conditions all over again.”
At Boca, he developed a reputation as a dead-ball specialist. Argentine journalist Martin Mazur says: “He ended up being the free kick king. Corners as well. He scored one or two free kicks. All the tall guys would go forward and he was there putting it where they needed it.”
Mac Allister played alongside former Manchester United striker Tevez and ex-Lazio forward Mauro Zarate at Boca and would chat to them about their experiences at European clubs. Zarate told him that he felt Serie A was the best league, but Tevez was adamant the Premier League was the pinnacle and said the passion of the fans in England was unmatched.
Mac Allister knew there would be a period of adaptation when he arrived in England, but he had no idea just how difficult the transition would be.
He inherited the No 10 shirt following the departure of Romanian striker Florin Andone, and head coach Graham Potter gave him his debut as a late substitute in a goalless draw with Wolves in March 2020.
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It proved to be Brighton’s last game for 15 weeks as the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the Premier League and other leagues around the world to shut down.
His mum Silvina was visiting at the time, and was unable to return to Argentina due to the travel restrictions. Mac Allister described her as “a rock” for him during those months in lockdown.
“It was a tough introduction to life over here,” Potter admitted. “He came in the middle of 100 days of rain and he was adapting to the climate and the country. Then he had all the time in his flat, not being able to go out. So he was not really able to integrate himself or adjust to British culture as much as he’d have liked.”
He used his time wisely, improving his English, having already started taking lessons at Boca. However, the lack of football left a gaping void in his life. “I lost momentum, I stagnated as a player,” he said.
When the season resumed in late June, Brighton avoided relegation with a game to spare. Mac Allister made four starts and four substitute appearances in the final nine matches but was still finding his feet. Still only 21, he struggled initially with the physicality of the Premier League but staff were impressed by his commitment to an extensive strength and conditioning programme to combat that weakness.
He scored only once in his first 30 league appearances for Brighton, but that added-time equaliser to snatch a draw against arch-rivals Crystal Palace was a sure-fire way to gain popularity with the fans.
Mac Allister faced competition initially for a midfield place from Yves Bissouma, Aaron Mooy, Davy Propper and Dale Stephens. But they all moved on to new clubs as Mac Allister gradually established himself with his poise in possession, knack for finding pockets of space and eye for goal.
The 2021-22 season — Potter’s last full campaign in charge before leaving for Chelsea last September — was the Argentinian’s real breakthrough year. He contributed five goals and two assists as he missed just five of the 38 league matches, helping Brighton jump from coming 16th in the 20-team league the previous year to finishing ninth.
Mac Allister regarded the trip to Everton in January 2022 as “the turning point” for him — he scored a match-winning double that day, including a sweet strike into the top corner from 20 yards.
STUNNING! 💥🚀 @AleMacAllister 🎯 pic.twitter.com/VwtIzCDhNP
— Brighton & Hove Albion (@OfficialBHAFC) January 2, 2022
His upward trajectory gathered pace when Roberto De Zerbi succeeded Potter early this season. His calmness and willingness to accept the ball under severe pressure from opponents in deep areas as half of a double pivot with Ecuadorian Moises Caicedo was perfect for the Italian’s precise style of playing out from the back.
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It was key to Brighton qualifying for the Europa League by finishing sixth, one place below Liverpool. Mac Allister then emphasised his versatility after returning from Argentina’s World Cup triumph in November and December, with De Zerbi sometimes using him in the more advanced role he had filled for his country. He has proved he can operate as a No 6, a No 8 or a No 10, all with comparable comfort.
Away from the pitch, Mac Allister lived a quiet life in Brighton, a holiday resort on England’s south coast, sipping South American maté tea from his sofa while watching football on TV. He would visit Cafe Malbec in neighbouring Hove to get a taste of what he missed back home, ordering skirt steak, empanadas and fried sweet potato.
Wherever Mac Allister goes, he is quizzed about his surname.
When Brighton played Aston Villa, their Scottish assistant coach Gary McAllister, who is still adored at Liverpool from his two seasons there as a player at the start of this century, asked him about his ancestry, having wondered whether they were distant relations.
His father Carlos’ flame-coloured hair when he was playing accentuated the Scottish myth. But the family’s roots are in Ireland.
“We came to Argentina, to a place called Pergamino, but that was three or four generations ago, and later my father and mother married and moved to a different place — Santa Rosa, which is where Alexis was born,” reveals Carlos.
“Now, when we get together, they always say that our ancestors came from Ireland. I don’t know whether the ones before them were from Scotland, and went to Ireland from Scotland, and then our ancestors came here. But we say that we came from Ireland.”
Irish broadcaster RTE tracked down one of Alexis’ distant cousins in Donabate, a small coastal town of Donabate north of capital city Dublin. Noel McAllister explained that the family name had been in that area since the 17th century, with ancestors first emigrating to Argentina in 1865.
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Mac Allister is certainly a very different type of player to his dad, who played three times for Argentina in 1993 but didn’t make the squad for the 1994 World Cup finals.
“We could say that a DNA test is needed,” Carlos jokes. “But it has to do with the kind of club where he started to play, Club Parque, that’s produced players like (Esteban) Cambiasso, Riquelme, Tevez, so a lot of really great players, and always attack-minded ones. That made it possible for him to have a much more offensive style.
“It’s true that I played for big, important teams, and I played a lot of games for the first team, but I was very defensive, a hard, strong marker, and a very good header of the ball in spite of being short.
“Alexis is a player who, when he has the ball, is capable of playing magnificent passes, really nicely weighted, with a lot of awareness of the team. He’s a player who thinks first of his team-mates and afterwards of himself, he’s good with a dead ball — he’s a far superior player to the player I was. Thank God!”
Mac Allister’s two older brothers are still playing professionally in their homeland. Francis, 27, is a midfielder for Rosario Central, while 25-year-old Kevin is a defender for Argentinos Juniors.
Journalist Mazur adds: “The other two are closer to the dad. The dad was all about sacrifice; if he had to tackle with the head, he would tackle with the head. It was all about stamina and, despite being very short, he ended up being very good at heading. In the family, Alexis is definitely the guy with the good feet, the more technical of the four.”
Among the collection of tattoos on Mac Allister’s left arm are the names of his parents and brothers. There are also significant dates, such as when he made his debut for Argentinos Juniors and when they won promotion.
The roulette wheel around his elbow features the shirt numbers worn by him and his brothers. There’s also the face of Jesus Christ and an image of Mac Allister as a child wearing a No 10 shirt and walking up some steps with a ball in his hand.
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“Focus on very few things but do them with passion,” Carlos would frequently tell his sons when they were growing up.
“That stayed with us,” admits Mac Allister. “We’re lucky to have become professional footballers and we play with so much joy.”
Mac Allister was a bag of nerves the first time he met Lionel Messi on Argentina duty.
“I was red, completely red,” he told The Athletic last year. “I didn’t want even to say hello. I was really nervous to meet one of the best players in the world, but it was fantastic.
“It’s something I’m not going to forget. It was magic when my dad played with Maradona and I could train with Lionel Messi.”
Messi sprung to his defence after the new boy was given a nickname during his first senior international training camp.
“I remember everyone called me ‘Colo’, which is ‘Ginger’ in Argentina (because of his hair),” Mac Allister revealed. “I don’t like it much and he told the team-mates that. He said, ‘He doesn’t like to be called Colo, so don’t call him that!’”
Since then, his bond with the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner has strengthened significantly.
Having featured in friendlies against Chile and Mexico in 2019, Mac Allister had to wait until March last year to win his third cap, in a World Cup qualifier against Venezuela. In the interim, he represented Argentina Under-23s at the Olympics in Japan.
He wasn’t regarded as a definite pick for the World Cup, until FIFA increased the permitted squad size from 23 players to 26.
Then when Giovani Lo Celso was ruled out of the tournament two weeks before it began due to a hamstring injury, there was a vacancy in the team to be filled.
After being overlooked by Scaloni for the shock opening defeat to Saudi Arabia, Mac Allister was handed his opportunity in the second group game against Mexico and grasped it with both hands. He then scored his first international goal in the victory over Poland which secured their passage to the knockout phase.
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Mac Allister grew in stature and proved to be one of the stars of the tournament as he drifted in off the left and linked up expertly with Messi.
His contribution reached a crescendo in the final against France with the assist for Angel Di Maria’s goal that put Argentina 2-0 up.
Need a goal in a #FIFAWorldCup Final? Just call Angel Di Maria 🤙🇦🇷
He's scored in three-straight finals for Argentina! #LetItFly with @qatarairways pic.twitter.com/9S29HB4GV6
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) December 18, 2022
Only six members of Scaloni’s squad in Qatar saw more game time in the tournament than Mac Allister, who clocked up 550 minutes.
“It was so special watching Alexis during the World Cup,” Brighton’s former Liverpool midfielder Adam Lallana told The Big Interview podcast with Graham Hunter. “Not playing to begin with, then getting used and proving himself — playing so well that there was no way this guy doesn’t play.
“Seeing Messi looking for him to link play. When Messi is looking for you to help build attacks! When Messi was deep, he (Mac Allister) would take high positions, if Messi was high, he would drop. It shows his football intelligence.”
When Gonzalo Montiel scored the winning penalty in the shootout after the final ended in a 3-3 draw, Mac Allister burst into tears before blowing kisses to his jubilant family up in the stands. “It was a great day for me and for my country. It was something we dream about. The maximum for any player,” he said.
The gravity of what they had achieved — Argentina were crowned world champions for the first time since 1986 — hit home during the open-top bus parade around Buenos Aires.
“I was overwhelmed with emotion,” admitted Mac Allister. “It was mad — five million people on the streets celebrating with us.”
During his fortnight off he went back to Santa Rosa. There was a party to celebrate his 24th birthday, on Christmas Eve. Family members wore white T-shirts adorned with an image of Mac Allister kissing the World Cup with a Santa hat superimposed on his head.
It speaks volumes about Mac Allister’s attitude that he returned to Brighton earlier than they had anticipated, at the start of January.
He was given a hero’s reception, being applauded back into the building at the training ground by players and staff. With his World Cup medal around his neck, he lifted a replica of the trophy as the ticker tape rained down. He joked that he had no tears left to shed after crying so much while he was in Argentina.
Welcoming back our World Cup winner! 🙏 pic.twitter.com/Bb2MoZmf2B
— Brighton & Hove Albion (@OfficialBHAFC) January 2, 2023
Five days later, he came off the bench to score twice in an FA Cup win over Middlesbrough, including a stunning flicked finish from Pervis Estupinan’s cross-shot. Mac Allister had started that attack by racing back into his own half to regain possession.
With his stock having risen considerably, speculation about his future intensified but his focus and commitment didn’t waver.
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When he signed a new contract last October, it was mutually beneficial. A deal until the summer of 2025, with the option of an extra year, protected his value for Brighton. However, a clause was inserted at the request of his camp which would make it easier for suitors to secure his signature this summer.
“The idea was to repay the faith they showed in me,” explained Mac Allister. “Brighton helped me to grow as a player and as a person.”
It was Liverpool who were the visitors to the Amex Stadium in January for his first home game since the World Cup.
Jurgen Klopp was already a big admirer but his appreciation grew as Mac Allister was integral to Brighton inflicting a chastening 3-0 defeat with his intelligent distribution and tireless work off the ball. He intercepted a misplaced pass from Joel Matip in the build-up to Solly March’s opener.
He finished the season as Brighton’s top scorer with 12 goals in all competitions (six penalties) and also provided three assists in 40 appearances as he helped them qualify for Europe for the first time ever. In May, he scored the latest winning goal in Premier League history against Manchester United when he converted a penalty in the ninth minute of stoppage time.
As well as versatility, the Argentinian ticks the durability box. He missed just four Premier League games due to illness or injury during his three-and-a-half years at Brighton.
He waved a tearful goodbye to Brighton fans after their 2-1 defeat to Villa on the final day of the season, and De Zerbi effectively confirmed that both Mac Allister and Caicedo would be moving on this summer.
“The policy of Brighton is like this. I think it’s right they can leave, can change teams and play in a level higher,” he said. “They are two great people and two great players.”
Lallana, who shared a dressing room with Mac Allister for the past three years, has watched his development with delight.
“A special player and a special person,” he added. “It took him a bit of time to settle coming here, but his English is incredible now. How he plays is so pure. The way he lends (team-mates) the football, uses others, there’s no selfishness at all in the way he plays.
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“He’s not the quickest or the strongest but it doesn’t matter. It’s up here (points to his head). It’s like (Real Madrid star Luka) Modric. So smart. He knows the football is faster than anyone. Alexis is of that ilk.”
You’d struggle to find anyone at Brighton with a bad word to say about Mac Allister. On the field, a fierce competitor, off the field, shy, polite and humble.
After recently attending the wedding of Argentina team-mate Lautaro Martinez in Italy, he headed to Miami on holiday with girlfriend Ailen Cova. He owns a $2million apartment in the US city’s Edgewater district.
Mac Allister told Florida-based online newspaper Infobae he was “very calm” about the prospect of joining Liverpool. His mind was already made up. Rather than be put off by the absence of Champions League football at Anfield next season, he was enthused by the challenge of helping Klopp’s side regain that coveted status.
“The objective is to continue improving as a person and as a player to win more titles. I’m 24, I’m a world champion, I play in one of the best leagues in the world and I feel my career is growing, but I still have my feet on the ground and I really want to improve,” he said.
It’s been some rise. The boy from Santa Rosa is now the headline signing of Liverpool’s midfield rebuild.
Additional reporting: Andy Naylor
(Photos: Getty Images; design: Sam Richardson)