Lionel Scaloni revealed what he said to Javier Mascherano on his departure as coach of the Argentina Under-20 national team

The coach of argentina national team, Lionel Scaloni, sat down for the first time in a press conference after winning the World Cup in December 2022. In the presence of journalists who spoke at the press conference at the AFA headquarters in Ezeiza, the leader of staggered talked about everything. One of the topics on which he expressly stopped was that of the coach Javier Mascheranofor his resignation from the Sub 20 after failing to qualify for the 2023 World Cup.

Scaloni’s work does not only pass through what happens in the first team of the national team, but, for his meticulous work, he relies on a general guideline of the youth teams. Mascherano is one of the former footballers who was part of the national project but, due to the bad results, he took a step to the side.

“I spoke to Mascherano after the tournament. He thinks it’s better not to continue, me I told him he was wrong. When a boy who has lived for many years in the national team and believes he shouldn’t continue, well… we tried anyway because we saw him work, we were online”Scalone said.

And he added: “We believe that his work has been very good, but ahead is his decision. For us it is an important loss, because I appreciate it very much. She made this decision, you must respect it“.

Mascherano has decided to step aside in the senior youth teams after the poor results obtained in the South American game played in Colombia, where he ended his participation without reaching the final hexagon which determined the qualifications for the 2023 World Cup in Indonesia.

“I don’t have much to say: there are no excuses. Here I am the one who failed and I have to take charge”, declared Mascherano, who took a few days, reflected, but did not change his decision even with the call of the president of the AFA, Claudio Chiqui Tapia, and the world champion coach Lionel Scaloni.