• Julian Alvarez has been a revelation for Argentina in the World Cup.
• The 22-year-old has scored four goals to earn a starting spot.
• He is likely to start Sunday’s championship game against France.

The humble Julian Alvarez, who has been a revelation for Argentina in the World Cup, is praised as a “hero” and “ambassador” in his little home village.

After entering the Qatar tournament on the bench, Alvarez has scored four goals to earn a starting spot due to his impressive play.

The 22-year-old is a certain to start Sunday’s championship game against France and may even be the game’s most valuable player.

One of Alvarez’s teachers at Rivera Indarte primary school in Calchin, Patricia Magnino, told AFP that he was “a very supportive, responsible and studious youngster, given to help his companions” when he was seven years old.

Now he’s a superstar and a great in the same league as Lionel Messi.

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His former Spanish instructor Graciela De Barberis elaborated: “He was notable for his modesty and lack of verbosity. If you put forth the effort, your dreams will come true.”

Calchin, which literally means “salty area” in the local language, is a small town of around 3,000 people in the northeastern part of the prosperous rural and industrial province of Cordoba.

Billboards proclaiming “Julian, the pride of Calchin” and featuring images of enormous spiders can be found at the village’s main entrance and on the walls of the local school.

The village’s buildings are all one story, and trees like white quebrachos, pines, carobs, and chanares line the streets.

The village, with the exception of the noise from a few metalworking shops, is eerily silent. Fields of grain and pastures for livestock may be seen all around.