Federico Fernández smiles as the photograph is passed across the table to him. There are rows of shirts with his name and number on the back, framed pictures, pennants and footballing memorabilia of every description, all from his early days in Argentina and displayed in what looks like a huge trophy cabinet.
“This picture was in my parents’ home,” Fernández says. “It’s a window, and the window was on the street because it’s a shop, which my father had for the school, selling books and things. There are a lot of shirts, my first for Argentina as an Under-20 … It’s impossible to see them all.
“At that time the people in my town came to the door and said: ‘Hey, can I see the museum?’ After a month my father said: ‘No, no, it’s closed. It’s not possible.’ The people would knock on the door but there were too many in the house.”
The Fernández family have moved from the small town of Tres Algarrobos, which is about 280 miles west of Buenos Aires, but it is tempting to wonder what the queue would be like if the “museum” was still open. After all, Fernández has gone on to win silverware with Napoli, make four appearances at the World Cup in Brazil, and since joining Swansea City 12 months ago has been sending back a steady supply of shirts bearing names such as Di María, Agüero and Rojo (he has also kept the one he wore on his debut, against Rotherham, in the League Cup).
There is a World Cup final shirt and runners-up medal to add to the collection – Fernández was on the bench for the 1-0 defeat to Germany – and a cherished photograph with Lionel Messi in the dressing room in New Jersey after Argentina beat Brazil in a classic in 2012. “Crazy,” Fernández says, smiling at the memory of the match and his second-half header. “Messi scored a hat-trick and we won 4-3. So I put on Twitter our two scorers.”
It is one of several football stories that Fernández could dine out on for years to come in Argentina but the 26-year-old seems just as likely to regale others with tales about travelling. The son of a geography teacher, he views his football career as a wonderful opportunity to embrace other cultures and visit the countries and cities that his mother brings alive in class in Argentina.
A little while back he was in Edinburgh, on board the Royal Yacht Britannia, making sure no time goes to waste. “Travelling the world, I think, is amazing,” Fernández says. “When we have two days off I try to go to somewhere like Amsterdam, London, Edinburgh or Dublin, because maybe I’ll never come back.”
Swansea hope he will stay as long as possible. A ball-playing centre-half with a scar or two to prove that he is up for the physical scrap as well, Fernández has slotted seamlessly into the Swansea defence following his arrival from Napoli and looks a class act.
Forget the mistake that led to Sunderland equalising in the 1-1 draw at the Stadium of Light last weekend – an incident so rare it is a collector’s item of a different kind – Fernández has made a big impression in a short time at the Liberty Stadium and it says much about his determination to adapt that his English is good enough to conduct an hour-long interview without a translator.
“Last year my English, one point. Now, maybe five,” he says, laughing. “I wanted to learn. I have lessons twice a week with my teacher in my house. Obviously, it’s important now for my time playing for Swansea, but it’s very important for life also. English is the first language in the world and I want to speak it very well. But it’s very important for my job on the pitch, because in my position I’m always speaking: ‘Ashley [Williams], back in, cover, mark’. That communication is important because as a defender you view the whole situation.”
Fernández has always had a clear picture in his mind. He grew up idolising Roberto Ayala – “I watched a lot of videos of him; I think he was the complete defender” – and dreamed of playing for Argentina. His big break came when his father called Estudiantes de La Plata to ask if his 14-year-old son could have a trial. Estudiantes saw enough in a week to know that the kid nicknamed “El Flaco” (Skinny) was worth signing.
Fernández uses the word “special” to describe the eight years he spent at Estudiantes and it is easy to see why. He was a promising youngster training with the first-team when Diego Simeone led the team to the Apertura (the Argentinian league title) in 2006 and that period also coincided with Juan Sebastián Verón’s fairytale return to the club where he had started his career.
Verón, who is now the president at Estudiantes, had a big influence on Fernández and the two remain close. Emotionally attached to Estudiantes through his father’s hugely successful time there as a player, Verón came back to the club after disappointing spells with Manchester United and Chelsea and inspired a turnaround on the pitch at the same time as investing his own money in the facilities and the academy.
“He changed the club,” Fernández says. “Verón, for the club, is a hero, and Estudiantes for him and his father is historic. I competed in the Copa Sudamericana final in 2008, I lost, but the next year I won the Copa Libertadores, which is the best tournament in South America, and the next year I won another tournament [the league title]. For me, it was the best experience in Argentina because Verón played a long time in Europe and he passed on a lot of things to the young players. I remember he said to me: ‘Fede, you’ll play in the national team in the future’.”
Verón called it right. Fernández made his international debut in April 2011 and a few months later joined Napoli, where he was following in the footsteps of Ayala and a certain other Argentinian. “The supporters have not forgotten Maradona – incredible,” says Fernández, who briefly met him during his time in Italy.
Fernández’s best season at Napoli was his last, in 2013-14, when Rafael Benítez led the club to third place in Serie A and won the Coppa Italia. During that campaign Napoli played Swansea in the Europa League and Fernández was hugely impressed with the Welsh club. “I was surprised by the style, because they passed all the time, controlled the game with the ball, and I liked it,” he says. “In the Premier League, teams can play long ball or physical, but I like Swansea’s style because it’s the same as in Argentina: play the ball at the back and in the middle – it’s good football.”
Six months later Fernández was wearing a Swansea shirt after a £7m transfer that underlined how much the club wants to push on. “Their history in the Premier League is short but the ambition for the club in the future is big,” he says. “The players that come are different: me from Napoli, or Jonjo [Shelvey] and Lukasz [Fabianski] from big teams – that’s very important for the club.
“At the moment we’re in a good position in the Premier League, together we want to do better than last season [eighth place]. It’s difficult, I know, with the big teams in the Premier League, but last season maybe two or three games we lost one or two points and the finish could have been different. We focus on doing that and maybe in the Cups more focus to get to the final.”
Before joining Swansea, Fernández started in Argentina’s first four games at the World Cup and he remains in touch with the squad via a group that was set up on WhatsApp at the time. Sergio Romero, Argentina’s goalkeeper in Brazil, will line up against him today, when Swansea host Manchester United, and Fernández knows Rojo well from their time at Estudiantes.
Swansea did the double over United last season in Garry Monk’s first full campaign in charge and Fernández is hugely complimentary about the manager. “Garry is doing a very good job at Swansea. He prepares in the week for the game, the [information] is complete. We have iPads [with tactical insights] – the players have a lot of help. The mentality – he works 24 hours at the club – the same as Simeone. From my experience with different clubs and different coaches, I think in the future he’ll be a top coach at a big club.”
Fernández may also be destined for greater things, although he sounds more than happy at Swansea. He likes the fact that “the people respect you” when he pops out to the supermarket or goes to dinner – life was not so reserved in Naples – and enjoys living close to the sea.
In fact, there is only one complaint from a man who was brought up on red meat and barbecues. “Here I can’t get a good steak,” he concludes, laughing.