Scaloni, the young and inexperienced who surprised the world and sits at the table of Menotti and Bilardo

Now that sports betting is in vogue, a quick trick: imagine how much money the dreamer could have earned after being shipwrecked in Russia 2018 I bet some mangoes for Lionel Scaloni like the DT he would bring Argentina to be World Champion. Today I would be a millionaire.

So he wrote just under four years ago, on December 25, 2018: “Lionel Scaloni is an easy target for the millions of members who question everything. If at this point there are people who still rail against Lionel Messiimagine what’s left this 40-year-old man who has almost no experience as the head coach of a football team and who is now in the place that many dream of and almost no one agrees with: to be DT of the national team ”.

The note continues and concludes: “It is also appreciated that he has his feet on the ground and that, unlike many of his predecessors, he tends to decontract and desecrate his role as DT of the national team. And, above all, his good The table of gear that has been proposed for this 2019 shows that he has clear ideas about what he wants to do between now and the Copa América, and it is also what any coach would do, with or without experience. Another thing would be stupid. The one that is usually bought, almost blindly, by those linked to the club who question everything.”

We didn’t know that any of this was going to happen. Third place in the 2019 Copa América was the springboard for something good to happen. The coronation in Copa América 2021 was the first result of careful management and also the click necessary to understand that Messi would not have left the national team without being able to smile. The Final was the demonstration of the maturation of the team. And this World Cup, after the pineapple of the defeat against Saudi Arabia, was the definitive leap towards eternity.

Because Messi He was decisive on the pitch, finding the small loopholes to demolish the rivals who paraded after that painful debut one by one. But staircases and his coaching staff was the one who put the structure and gears together so that Leo could squeeze, as Jorge Valdano said, to the last drop of his wisdom at the service of this historic tournament.

The other day, on one of the long walks we took here Qatar, a good discussion broke out with colleagues and we played one of those little games that journalists usually play when we’re bored. What is very close to “we talk without knowing”, but with a straight face as if we were discussing the most important issues in the world.

Is Scaloni up to the task? menotti and of billiards? El Flaco, DT world champion in Argentina 1978, is in charge of the AFA giving it priority and putting long pants organizationally in the national team. El Narigón, DT world champion at Mexico 86, was the one who knew how to get the most out of Maradona and put together an invincible team around him. In addition, with a kind of Armada Brancaleone, he almost repeated himself in Italia 90 despite having a battered Diego. They are the two technical heroes in the history of Argentine football. And it seemed that there would be no place for a third person, for someone to discuss their place with them.

Until Scaloni appeared, without experience, without touring, but armed with common sense in the technicians. Without lookout, with seriousness and with a group of collaborators in which ability rules and not cronyism. With the support of the management and with an obedience of those directed which only highlights its virtues.

What is Scaloni’s success? have armed the containment network so that Messi would finally free himself from all his ghosts in blue and white. But that’s not the only blow, Scaloni has restored love for the national team. When it seemed that no one cared about the national team, when many had lost interest and had chosen to turn their backs on it, the DT handcrafted the Scaloneta. And La Scaloneta will remain in everyone’s memory as the team of a city that smiled again, like Messi, in the biancoceleste.

Most important of all. It is that this text would say almost all the same words if the coin fell on the side of France. It is that Scaloni, whatever he does in the future, has left a legacy. The team ahead of everything. It’s the only way to build and silence the members of the club that calls everything into question.

From Qatar, special envoys