Barcelona midfielder Gavi, 21, said in an interview with Dsports that he has always liked Boca Juniors "por la afición y por el estadio" and that Argentina, France and Portugal are among his picks for the next World Cup.
"Siempre me ha gustado Boca por la afición y por el estadio," Gavi said, a plain declaration that underlines the pull the Buenos Aires club still holds for players around the world. He added, "Argentina es una de las favoritas porque tiene a Leo Messi y tiene grandes jugadores," and then named his three choices apart from Spain: "Yo creo que también está ahí Francia. Voy a decir tres aparte de España: Argentina, Francia y Portugal."
The remarks carry weight because Gavi is not a casual observer: he is a product of La Masía, he won the Golden Boy award in 2022 and he plays for Barcelona, one of European football's biggest stages. At 21 years old, his opinion matters to fans who follow the next generation of talent and to clubs who track the game's shifting affections.
Gavi's comments were given in an interview with Dsports and landed against a backdrop in which Boca Juniors and its stadium, La Bombonera, have been repeatedly praised by high-profile figures. The article notes that Ronaldinho, Gennaro Gattuso, Antoine Griezmann, Sergio Ramos, Luka Modric and Marco Materazzi have all been impressed by Boca and La Bombonera, and that Materazzi even got a tattoo of the club crest.
The context sharpened the story: the Finalissima that would have pitched Spain against Argentina on March 27 was postponed. The article says Gavi was close to facing Leandro Paredes in that match, but organizers called it off because of the war in the Middle East and logistical issues between the federations.
That postponement creates a tension between spectacle and reality. On one hand, Gavi's praise feeds a long-running romance between European stars and Boca's mythic stadium; on the other, an international fixture that might have tested those cross-continental storylines will not take place on the planned date because of geopolitical conflict and federation logistics.
The collision of those facts leaves a clear consequence: a widely anticipated Spain–Argentina meeting on March 27 will not showcase the potential on-field duel between Gavi and Leandro Paredes, and fans will have to wait to see how those personal narratives play out when international football resumes its calendar. Gavi's endorsement of Boca, delivered in a short Dsports interview, reinforces the club's global cachet even as the match that might have highlighted it was postponed.
For now, Gavi's view is simple and public, delivered in Spanish and without hedging: "Siempre me ha gustado Boca por la afición y por el estadio," a line that places Boca and La Bombonera at the center of a conversation about where great players want to play and what matches fans most want to see — conversations interrupted, in this case, by events off the pitch.
