We need to talk about up and coming athletes like Luka Romero.

Luka Romero made his debut in La Liga becoming the youngest player to play in La Liga last week when he was subbed into the Mallorca side as they faced Real Madrid.

Earlier this week Sergio Ramos scored a stunner of a free-kick outside of the box to put Real Madrid up 2-0 and win against fellow La Liga side Mallorca Wednesday. Though the headlines were taken away by a young Argentine that was born in Mexico named Luka Romero.

The reason he was being discussed was that he set a record for being the youngest player to ever play in a La Liga side at the age of 15. Many are dubbing him the “Mexican Messi”. As a youth team player, he has suited up for Argentina in the past, but he could potentially switch allegiances to Mexico since he was born there and he hasn’t represented any international team at the senior level.

This debut is amazing but with that comes expectations. Prospects of this nature receive so much pressure and we will discuss that phenomenon shortly. What is even more absurd is how the Mexican Media, along with fellow site like us (we aren’t exempt), is how we report on stories like this and love to discuss “what if” scenarios. The “What if Cristiano Ronaldo was Mexican?” We are more inclined to say who could play for the Mexican National Team than ask more questions of substance as “who needs to play for the National Team?”, as more successful National Team Federations do.

We never hear international media or Argentine media speaking about a dual international that is Culturally Mexican that was born in Argentina, and how they could play for Argentina “one day”. Because not only does Argentina have more depth of talent In the international soccer game, but with media that reads as such points to an underlying issue in youth development and reflects poorly on a nations’ soccer federation.

Along with these “what if” posts come expectations of young players with the headlines Luka Romero has been receiving, who in this instance is still a teenager and hasn’t experienced certain aspects of life and no one knows how they will react to challenging circumstances moving forward. One of the more infamous examples was that of Freddy Adu who was a 14-year-old playing in MLS. Which if we think about it is absurd and if the MLS tried that now would be seen as Child Endangerment or a bad PR stunt to generate interest in a league with not that much to offer but poor defensive positioning and aging superstars that young organizations try to squeeze every penny from what’s left from their “glory years” in Europe.

Freddy did what he could, but he had the expectations of the future of U.S soccer on his back and with expectations that heavy, he was going to fail unless he played well enough to go to a top 5 European league and be a consistent starter with a club that plays in Champions League yearly. Instead, he played 3 years at D.C United and was traded to Real Salt Lake City where his future of being a journeyman started to take shape, playing for 14 teams after leaving Real Salt Lake City. He did have a trial at Manchester United but couldn’t get a work permit for more time to prove himself.

With all fairness that a drastic comparison, but I say that to say this. With social media, regular network media, and with even more sites sprucing up like this one, there is more pressure than ever before for an up and coming talent. Everyone is so concerned about the “Next” Messi, Ronaldo, Michael Jordan, Lebron James and so on. These younger players need proper time to develop their psyche, physical strength, and learn to be part of a good team culture before expectations get thrust upon them to carry a generation or National Team. If Luka Romero makes it to be a first-team player that plays a good role and is a good teammate in a top 20 European side that’s good enough, and that’s something they need to hear more often.

Players as Mexico’s very own Jonathan Espericueta (who is still only 25 years old) can be the cream of the crop of their respective generations, as he was leading Mexico to its U-17 World Cup win in 2011 and winning the U-20 World Cup in 2013, being a maestro in the midfield and going forward scoring 2 goals in each competition. He came back to Mexico and was never heard of ever again, other than bad attitude rumors and losing respect from then Tigres coach Tuca Ferreti.

All of this is just to say to take it easy when a young great player gets injured, isn’t playing as much as people think they should, or is playing great so much media attention isn’t warranted. They can be covered, but take it easy on them and one player’s decision to be happy shouldn’t make or break a National Team, because if it does then that National Team never had a chance anyway.