Real Madrid supremo Florentino Perez has made a number of gaffes in his time as the president of the world’s most successful club. Getting rid of di Maria (for the sum of £59.7 million) was not one of them.
Another member of the gold-plated generation of exceptional Argentine talent (at youth level), it seemed during his time at Real Madrid that the 30-year-old native of Rosario would be the world-class winger the national team has been crying for.
However, the last meaningful thing that di Maria has done for his national team was to score the goal that beat Switzerland (last minute of extra-time) in the 2nd round at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
His decline has been as rapid as it has been alarming as he never truly settled at Manchester United under Louis van Gaal and jumped ship just a season later to PSG where his time there has been rather forgettable.
In his nation’s desperate hours of need (the Copa America final in 2015 as well as during the World Cup qualifiers), he was nowhere to be found and was among the many underperformers whose terrible performances have somehow flown under the radar.
He was abysmal against Iceland in the team’s opening World Cup match and was rightly dropped for the disaster class against Croatia.
A new generation of Argentine wingers: Rodrigo de Paul, Lucas Ocampos, Cristian Pavon, Lucas Janson among others are emerging, the di Maria train has run its course and is of no use to anyone in the national set-up anymore.