Julian Alvarez lives for the big moments. Deep in the bowels of extra-time, with Argentina toiling and needing something special to unlock Switzerland, he unleashed a gamma ray from his boot which tore into the top far corner.

To borrow a quote from Rio Ferdinand : this is what he does. We have seen this time and again. When it gets to crunch time in the big competitions - and particularly semi-finals - Alvarez steps up.

Just to take one example: the last time he was in a World Cup semi-final, in 2022, he struck twice against Croatia.

One of those goals involved picking the ball up in his own half, slaloming past three men, and dinking it over goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic. Praise rained down. Lionel Messi called him 'extraordinary'.

Curiously, the striker nicknamed La Arana - the Spider - has a stellar record specifically in the last four of competitions. World Cup, Champions League, Copa America, Copa del Rey - name a semi-final he's played in and he's usually scored in it.

It should worry England, then, that Alvarez is hitting his stride at just the right time. The 26-year-old has had a quiet tournament - he was a substitute in the first two games due to a recent ankle injury - but his goal against Switzerland in the last round drew him level with an icon. He now has five World Cup knockout goals in total for La Albiceleste, as many as Diego Maradona managed, and only two fewer than Messi.

It means that England can't simply afford to handcuff Messi and consider the heist thwarted. In Alvarez, Argentina have a striker who has scored 49 goals in two seasons for Atletico Madrid and has the potential to define this tie. That's not to mention their fellow striker Lautaro Martinez, who also scored off the bench against the Swiss and regularly delivers 20+ goals per season for Inter Milan.

Alvarez is more of a killer than he was when he left Manchester City two years ago and European contenders are sitting up. Real Madrid president Florentino Perez even staked his re-election campaign on signing an unnamed 'galactico' for €150million (£128m) who, it came to light, was Alvarez.

Atletico quite literally laughed off the bid with five crying face emojis on X to dismiss it. The release clause in his contract is £427m. But the transfer saga is not over. Alvarez last month stated his intention to leave the club and 'fulfil his dream'. That comes amid interest from Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, and now Arsenal. He has his pick of the finest fruits.

Alvarez's ruthlessness can sometimes go under the radar because of his selflessness. At Manchester City, who he joined in 2022, he was often tasked with the relentless pressing and dropping deep that would accommodate Erling Haaland's more laissez-faire style - or with coming off the bench.

'He’s a special guy, with his work ethic,' said Pep Guardiola. 'He reminds me a bit of Gabriel (Jesus), how aggressive he is without the ball.' But Guardiola also called him a 'clinical' finisher and Haaland compared him to Sergio Aguero.

Last season was disappointing in LaLiga - he only scored eight - but he hit 10 in the Champions League, a haul bettered only by Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane, and throughout his career, he has bagged almost a goal every other game. In one match for River Plate in the Copa Libertadores, he scored six.

His coaches knew they had a talent on their hands from the moment he could count uno, dos, tres. In the small town of Calchin, around 400 miles from Buenos Aires, where the youngster would later play for River Plate, Club Atletico coach Rafael Varas saw him play for the first time.

Delivery driver Varas was amazed at this two-year-old running round. 'The first time he went onto the pitch, he saw the ball and went running after it, and he ran all over, from one side to the other - I can tell you that the ball was bigger than he was,' he recalled to the Athletic.

'He was a River and Barca fan [growing up], he always wanted to play professional football - to play for River, to play with Messi.'

He said elsewhere: 'I remember one goal, when he was about eight or nine, when he beat four or five rivals and scored a rabona goal.

'That’s when I realised we had a different kind of player, who could be a world star.'

A world star he now is. While perhaps a rung below the most recognisable faces, he has partnered with the likes of Pepsi and Adidas.

After he bagged a brace against Real Madrid in last September's thrilling derby win, Alvarez received the highest plaudits from Fernando Torres. 'For me, Julian Alvarez is the best player in the world, without any doubt. There’s not much more to say,' said Torres, the current manager of Atletico Madrid B.

There won't be many who agree with that assessment, not when there's Kylian Mbappe, Lamine Yamal, Haaland, and Messi knocking around.

But he is an important component of this Argentina side, a huge part of their future post-Messi, and should not be underestimated. His role is still as a self-sacrificial facilitator - against Switzerland he recorded more presses and more sprints than any Argentina star, and only Alexis Mac Allister ran further - and he sees himself as an enabler for his hero. 'We will do everything to make sure Messi wins the World Cup again,' he said recently.

But a man who has already scored in the semi-finals of the World Cup, Copa America, Champions League, and Copa del Rey? He could be the one writing the headlines again.

How much is David Beckham set to pocket from his World Cup brand deals? Take on our quiz in our newsletter HERE