Liverpool star Alexis Mac Allister has admitted how close he was to leaving England, as the Premier League season begins.
The Reds were victorious last season, winning the title with games to spare and the Liverpool boss even headed out to the Balearic Islands to celebrate the club's victory before the season was complete.
While Mohamed Salah was the star of the Reds' triumphant season, there were others who played a less prominent role that were also vitally important to the team's success.
Liverpool's Alexis Mac Allister opens up in emotional interview
One such individual is Argentine midfielder Alexis Mac Allister, whose career trajectory could have been so very different, he says in a new tell-all piece penned with The Players' Tribune.
"In December 2020, I got on FaceTime with [my mum], and I was sobbing. I was at my flat in Brighton, and she was back home in Buenos Aires. I had lost my head," Mac Allister writes.
"I said, 'Mum, I cant do it anymore. Im coming home. I need to get out of here.'
"At the time, I was barely playing for Brighton. It was embarrassing, because I had the No. 10 shirt for a Premier League club, which is the dream of so many kids in Argentina, but I was a nobody. My name was nothing. I thought that I was cursed.
"When I first moved over to England from Boca Juniors at the beginning of 2020, I came on as a sub for one match, and a few days later, the world came to a stop. COVID. Bang. Everything shut down. No football. No friends. And the worst part was that I was stuck in a country where I didnt speak the language."
Mac Allister began his professional career at Argentinos Juniors, where he helped the club win the Argentine Second Division. In 2019, he signed for Brighton and Hove Albion, but was immediately loaned back to Argentinos Juniors and later Boca Juniors, where he won the 2019-20 Primera Division.
Upon officially joining Brighton, Mac Allister struggled initially but eventually became a key player, helping the Seagulls achieve their highest-ever Premier League finish and qualify for European football. Mac Allister was also a vital member of the Argentine national team, playing an important role in their 2022 FIFA World Cup victory in Qatar, where he scored and provided an assist in the final.
In 2023, he joined Liverpool, where he continued his success, winning the EFL Cup and Premier League titles.
"I was calling my mom on FaceTime every day, asking how to turn on the oven and where to put the detergent," Mac Allister adds. "And being alone, without playing, you get depressed. Many don't know this, but by that Christmas, with no fans in the stadiums, I had my bags packed. Literally, they were packed. I had two offers to leave one from Russia and another from Spain, and my mind was made up.
"After Christmas, we had so many injuries at Brighton that they basically had no option but to play me. I think a lot of people were probably watching Match of the Day saying, 'Who is this Mac Allister guy? Is he Scottish? Hes from Argentina? What?! The kid with the ginger beard?!'"
Mac Allister gradually came to feature more regularly for the Seagulls but it was not until the arrival of Roberto De Zerbi that he fully 'arrived' in English football.
Between Boxing Day 2021 - a year on from the lowest point of his career - and November 2022, Mac Allister did not miss a single Premier League fixture for Brighton, winning a place in Argentina's World Cup squad as a result.
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"I was in the squad. I was actually going to Qatar. I immediately called him and my mom on FaceTime, and we just cried together. Two years earlier, I couldn't get off the bench at Brighton. Now I was going to the World Cup with Argentina, trying to make history.
"The night before the final, I slept for 10 hours. Most of the match, its a blur. But the image that always comes into my mind from that final is when I passed the ball over to ngel Di Mara to make it 2-0.
"I remember my parents finally getting on to the pitch to celebrate with me, and its the first time in my life Ive ever seen my dad cry.
"The next thing I know, were on a flight back home, and we land in Buenos Aires to 5 million people in the streets. I think this is the most important memory I have in life."
Mac Allister returned to Brighton and went from strength-to-strength as an established Premier League player, ultimately earning a deserved switch to Liverpool.
There aren't too many 26-year-olds in the game, currently, who can boast a World Cup and Premier League title under their belts.
"When the final whistle blew against Spurs, I dropped to my knees and I just started crying. It was like something hit me in the chest. I think its because we had a genuine brotherhood, which is very rare in football.
"After the tragedy of this summer, and the emotion of finding out I was going to be a father, all of this has taken on a much deeper meaning for me."
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