A youth player from Club Estudiantes de la Union battles for the ball with an opponent during a match at the club's headquarters in the La Union neighborhood of Montevideo, on April 15, 2026. Nestled in a working-class neighborhood of Montevideo, the field where Federico Valverde took his first steps in football at the age of three frames, nearly a quarter of a century later, the dream of a new generation seeking to emulate the tenacious midfielder, a leader of Uruguay at the World Cup. (Photo by Eitan ABRAMOVICH / AFP via Getty Images)