HAD JAVIER MASCHERANO BEEN A member of Queen, he would have been neither Freddie Mercury nor Brian May. Lead vocals and virtuoso guitar riffs are not for him. Rather, he would have been John Deacon, reliably laying down the bass lines and often writing the songs, but most often remaining in the shadows, doing the essential but unsung work.

What else would you expect from a youngster who — in the country of Diego Maradona and Leo Messi, Roberto Ayala and Gabriel Heinze — chooses as his role model not a flashy striker or an inspirational defender but that most unsung of water-carriers, Claude Makelele? The holding midfield player is the metronome who allows the Argentina orchestra to mesmerise the opposition. He is also the defensive bulwark who allows Juan Román Riquelme and the other virtuosos to strut their stuff, knowing that their backs are covered.

Mascherano, who turned 22 this month, learnt at an early age not only where he wanted to be but who he wanted to be on the pitch. It happened six years ago, when he first saw Makelele directing the Real Madrid midfield.

“I always watched a lot of football and I tried to treat each game as a learning experience, a chance to study the best and pick up things I could then incorporate into my game,” Mascherano said. “I always loved watching Matias Almeyda and I’ve been told my style is similar to his. But, most of all, I love Claude Makelele. He’s the best in the world in that position and in many ways is the player I tried to emulate.”

He does not see his predilection for the unsung Frenchman as unusual. In fact, you get the sense that his vision of football is far more Makelele than Maradona. “OK, so you don’t get the glory and you don’t get into the highlights and maybe some don’t see what you do,” Mascherano said. “But in that role the game always goes through you. You are always in the middle of it and you are always battling, always fighting. It’s like the decathlon, You have to do so many things — pass, tackle, foul if necessary — and, what’s more, you’re always thinking. Your brain never gets a rest.

“That’s what I love. I’ve always liked defending more than attacking anyway. And to know that your team-mates depend on you so much, that you have so much responsibility, well, that spurs you on even more.”

Maturity is not a word often associated with footballers, yet when speaking to Mascherano, it is the first word that comes to mind. He moves with the same precision and self-assuredness on the pitch and off, while exuding a quiet confidence that naturally makes him a point of reference, even to his more heralded team-mates, who call him “El Jefe” (“The Chief”).

“The kid is fantastic,” Riquelme said. “He makes everyone feel so secure. When you lose the ball, you know that he’ll be there, best placed to win it back. And when you have the ball, you know he’s always open to receive it and you know he’ll give it back to you in a better position than you were when you passed it. He’s the engine that runs this team and when I think that he’s so young, I have to say, it’ s incredible.”

José Pekerman, the Argentina coach, understood just what Mascherano could bring to his team. Last season, when the player missed four months because of injury, Pekerman invited him to Argentina matches as a way of making it clear that he is an integral part of the team.

Pekerman’s commitment to him is not unlike the one Mascherano made to football. “At 14 I left home and, from that moment, I was alone,” he said. “That’s when I dedicated my life to football. I give everything I have to the game and I don’t regret it.”

He sounds almost like a fresh-faced priest who has just taken his vows, who knows that he has given up worldly pleasure to a different calling and is comfortable with his decision. Yet he is also under no illusions about what the future may bring. He never imagined, for example, that he would be playing his club football in Brazil, at Corinthians, rather than joining the exodus of young Argentine talent to Europe. But when the British-based consortium Media Sports Investment bought the São Paulo club and opened the coffers to secure Mascherano, Carlos Tévez and others, he went to Brazil.

“Few would have imagined it,” he said of his £10 million move to Corinthians. “But the world has changed. Today there is maybe a little less money in some European leagues and more, new rich people elsewhere.”

It is hard, though, to see Corinthians as anything but a stepping stone, not least because reports in Brazil continue to link MSI and its owner, Kia Joorabchian, with Roman Abramovich, the Russian billionaire who owns Chelsea, where the midfield is run by Makelele.

Mascherano smiled at the thought. “I have a long way to go, one day I’d love the challenge,” he said. “But, for now, I have something else on which to focus.”

Such as leading Argentina to their third World Cup crown, even if he is buried deep in the engine room when it happens.