Since Lionel Scaloni took over as coach, the Albiceleste has carried out a project that includes the youth teams and which, in addition to the present with the conquest in Qatar 2022, promises a great future.
“Scaloni is the youngest coach in the World Cup. Nineteen players will debut in a World Cup. We work on the renovation, and we bet on the sense of belonging. If this is not a project, where is the project?”he tweeted Chiqui Tapia on November 11, after the squad list of the Argentine National Team for the Qatar 2022 World Cup was announced.
It is true that Lionel Scaloni became coach of the Albiceleste due to the football crisis generated from the early elimination of the set of Jorge Sampaoli in Russia 2018which culminated in his resignation and also triggered the departure of Sebastian Beccacece, who until then was his assistant and was in charge of the sub-20. The youth team had to play the Tournament of Alcudia and someone had to take charge of the team. Therefore, from the AFA they turned to the one born in Pujato, one of the few members of that coaching staff who was still working for the selected team.
This is how he began his journey as a technical director who today, four and a half years later, He achieved the third World Cup in the history of the team and in 2021, by winning the Copa América, he had been able to cut a 28-year drought. In his first experience in Valencia he managed to crown the Argentine team that, among other youth, it included Leonardo Balerdi, Agustín Almendra, Adolfo Gaich and Federico Gattoni. But two days before that final against Russia, Scaloni received a call that would be decisive. Tapia’s proposal was that he lead the Major in the next two friendlies that were already scheduled, against Guatemala and Colombia.
“There are two games and they don’t have a coach. Let’s go and return to the sub-20″Scaloni explained to Pablo Aimar and Martín Tocalli, while they were walking along the beach of Valencia and after they both told him he was “crazy” for accepting the offer. Nobody, not even Scaloni, imagined what would come later.
But what started out as a quick response to a combo that he had remained headless, culminating in a successful project and a redefinition of the Argentine National Team. Tapia, often criticized for the present of Argentine soccer, strengthened his mandate thanks to the work that was carried out in the national team. “We continue betting on the comprehensive team project”, he wrote when he announced in September, almost two months before the World Cup, the renewal of Scaloni’s contract until 2026.
It is that in addition to what surrounds the Major, the work in the youth is unprecedented. With Bernardo Romeo as Coordinator of the Youth, the Scouting Department in Europe was launched, led by Juan Tassi and is in charge of looking for Argentine soccer players or not, but who, due to the nationality of their parents, can represent Argentina. That’s how they got to the juniors Alejandro Garnacho, Nicolás Paz, Franco and Valentín Carboni, and Matías Soulé, among others. they, together with Thiago Almada, Facundo Medina, Nehuen Pérez and some other youngsters who have been summoned by Lionel Scaloni in all this time, probably They will be part of the Greater Road to Canada, Mexico and the United States 2026.
Garnacho, Paz Tiago Geralnik and Franco Carboni.
Even the midfielder who emerged in Vélez and currently plays for Atlanta United was included in the list due to injuries to Joaquín Correa and Nicolás González, but The initial idea was for it to be part of the post World Cup process.
In March 2022, Tassi confirmed to TyCSports.com the intention to increasingly deepen the recruitment of talent abroad. “The intention is to be able to make shortlists with boys who play in Europe and that the coaches of each category can travel to see them circumstantially, without having to move to Argentina,” explained. In fact, the idea is to replicate it outside the European continent and the United States appears as a possible destination. In the pre-call for the South American sub-20, Javier Mascherano included Benjamín Cresmachi, a 17-year-old midfielder who is the son of Mendoza, but was born in Miami and plays in the lower ranks of Inter in the MLS.
While there may be exceptions (Lisandro Martínez and Alexis MacAllister debuted in the first team and then went down to sub-23), to get to Major is almost a requirement go through the youth firsthow they did it Facundo Medina, Nicolás González and Nehuén Pérezamong others.
To the smaller categories They are directed exclusively by ex-soccer players of the National Team. Pablo Aimarwho played in the 2002 and 2006 World Cups, is Scaloni’s assistant and is in charge of the under-17s, Mascheranowho shone in 2014 and also played in 2006, 2010 and 2018, directs the sub-20, while Diego Placente, who played Korea/Japan 2002, is the DT of the sub-15. At the same time, Walter Samuelwho was present in 2002 and South Africa 2010, and Fabián Ayala, who was present in 1998, 2002 and 2006, are other members of the Major League coaching staff. “Sense of belonging”Tapia defined it.
To all the young footballers who may appear on the horizon, we must add the presence of several of the current players, who most of them made their debut in the selection at the hands of Scaloni, after he carried out the renovation that was insistently demanded from Sampaoli. In the current cycle, 83 players were used, of which 43 made their debut.
Dibu Martinez and Geronimo Rullitwo of the three goalkeepers in Qatar, They had already been summoned, but it was only with Scaloni in charge that they had the opportunity to add minutes. Besides, Enzo Fernández, Nicolás González, Cristian Romero, Julián Álvarez, Nahuel Molina, Gonzalo Montiel, Lisandro Martínez, Juan Foyth, Rodrigo De Paul, Alexis Mac Allister and Exequiel Palacios they were summoned for the first time. By age, all of them will reach the next World Cup since the oldest is From Paul, who is 28.
But beyond the names, Scaloni managed to put together a team that with the passage of time fformed a special connection with the fans like never before in recent years. “Since the first day we assumed our idea was that the Argentine National Team belongs to everyone. -said Scaloni in the last conference before the final-. Give any footballer the chance to put on the shirt. We add a spectacular group that kills itself for the shirt and offers itself to the maximum, whoever plays. The hinge of all this was to continue trusting in a project and in a group of players who were going to give us joy. We left the shield and the people standing well. That was fulfilled”.
Photo: Richard Heathcote – Getty Images.
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