The case of Lionel Scaloni (Santa Fe, Argentina; 44 years old) is strange.
At least, he in charge of an all-powerful team like Argentina's.
The first official game of his career as a coach led him in the 2019 Copa América. Before, he had only worked as an assistant and in lower categories.
“One day I ran into Maestro Tabárez, after a friendly with Uruguay.
And he told me something that I will not forget: 'When they tell you that he has no experience, you answer that he has experiences.'
The phrase of the coach with the most games in the history of the Celeste (221) was marked by Scaloni.
“If a coach hasn't played at a professional level, then he can't direct?” Scaloni asks.
And he replies: “I know what the players go through.
And I know because I've been there.
Also, I had prepared a lot.
I took my first coaching course in 2011, four years before retiring”.
In 2016, he joined Jorge Sampaoli's coaching staff at Sevilla.
He followed the current coach of the Seville team to the Argentine team (2017 and 2018) and then took over after the World Cup in Russia, first as an interim.
In 2019, his Argentina finished third in the Copa América and two years later he lifted the first title in 28 years for the Albiceleste.
The first, of course, of Lionel Messi in the absolute.
his Argentina finished third in the Copa América and two years later lifted the first title in 28 years for the Albiceleste.
The first, of course, of Lionel Messi in the absolute.
his Argentina finished third in the Copa América and two years later lifted the first title in 28 years for the Albiceleste.
The first, of course, of Lionel Messi in the absolute.
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The crouching Argentina
Ask.
When did he realize that he was going to direct the World Cup in Qatar?
Answer
.
In Argentina, where football is spoken and breathed 24 hours a day, it is very difficult to respect a process, especially when results are not obtained.
Something strange happened with us.
Things started to go well for us, but it wasn't just what happened on the pitch.
This team has
hit
people.
The fans identify with their way of feeling and playing football.
Our team plays well, but also defends well.
Soccer is not just one thing.
You have to know that at some point in the game the opponent can handle the ball for you.
And, at that moment, there is no need to be overwhelmed.
Q.
Are you the Argentine soccer union?
R.
When we have the ball, we take care of it.
It can be said that we are Menottists.
But when we don't have it, we entrench ourselves.
So, they can also say that we are
billardistas
We have achieved a harmony between fans, management, players... It was something that happened from the beginning.
new sap
The kit man knew a new player, the doctor too.
You would go to a table and see a 35-year-old talking to another 18-year-old and explain what the national team was.
A different chemistry that was breathed in the environment.
Q.
Is the chemistry you are talking about symbolized in the photo of the players in Ibiza to celebrate Messi's birthday?
R.
The difference is in social networks.
I, in 2006, got along great with Demichelis.
He, in the end, did not go to the World Cup in Germany.
If we had had social networks, he surely would have written her a message.
These players have a good relationship, yes.
Wives are friends, too.
But, since they are all in big clubs, it is magnified.
Yes, I am convinced of one thing: the better you get along, the better with the one who plays next to you, the more you give.
That happens in any environment, in any work group and in any soccer team.
And, as a coach, you have to know what's going on.
If the ones who get along badly are the left back and the right winger, maybe nothing happens.
They don't even cross the field.
But the two centrals… they have to know their families and even the town where each one was born.
This is a team sport.
Q.
Are you also looking to be close to the players?
R.
Yes, I am close.
I recently read an interview with Ancelotti in which he said that before a match against Shakhtar Donetsk he started talking to a group of players.
They asked him to play something else and he listened.
Ancelotti is a coach who won everything and he could have answered that it was played as he said.
Well, I like that.
Logically, the decisions are made by the coach.
But it is important to know what the player thinks.
You can't take a footballer onto the field if he isn't convinced of what he has to do.
He has to feel comfortable and for that you have to listen to him.
I believe in that closeness.
I understand it as essential.
Much more in football today, if the player turns his back on you, it's over.
Q.
Do you remember the last defeat of the team?
R.
It was with Brazil in the semifinals of the Copa América 2019, right?
[Since then, Argentina has accumulated 36 games without losing].
But that is anecdotal.
Statistics are to be broken and to me they are worthless.
But there is a common denominator: the difficulty of beating this team.
P.
Is that something mental or football?
R.
Today, the most important thing is the head.
To these footballers, who all play well, if you have them right in the head and you get rid of all the fears they may have... We came from three lost finals and with players who had the feeling that they were not going to win anything with the national team.
We try to convey the idea that the sun will rise the same tomorrow.
You can lose, you can win... It's okay.
We won the Cup and the next day I had already forgotten.
But if I had lost it, too.
Q.
Is that managed by the coaching staff or do they have a psychologist?
A.
We do it.
Sorry for psychologists.
Maybe I'll use them later, but from the coaching staff we pass on our experience to the players.
It is true that, sometimes, when you lose a game and it seems that the world is collapsing.
I lost an FA Cup final with West Ham.
In fact, they blamed me for the last goal.
That night I couldn't even sleep.
As a consequence of that, West Ham did not buy me and I came to Spain.
I married my wife and had two children.
Something that would not have happened to me if I had stayed in London.
You realize what I'm telling you, the sun rises the next day.
Q.
And how is success managed?
R.
If you believe yourself to be more than you are, you are dead.
When I had just arrived at the national team, a person from the property [of Ezeiza, where the Albiceleste trains] told me that now he was going to be more important than the president.
I thought: “How?
No, this guy is wrong.
I'm just a soccer coach.
Now I am the coach of the national team, later I will be in another place.
But I am that: a coach.
I don't believe anything else."
I know that with my attitudes I can help or not help people.
And that is the line to follow and it is the same when you win as when you lose.
Maybe, since they are not used to this tranquility in Argentina, they think I'm
crazy.
Q.
Same formula for the players?
A.
The same.
We also tell them.
They can't believe anything else.
It is a danger when you think you are more than you are.
In soccer or anywhere.
P.
What face does Messi have when he talks about normality?
A.
Messi?
He is the most terrestrial of all.
Sometimes I'm walking down the street and someone asks me for an autograph.
And nothing happens.
Then they can ask you for another.
And neither.
But the fifth in a row... Well, it happens to me once in a while, but to Leo every holy day.
That's not fair.
He can't have a normal life.
And why do I say that he is the most earthly of all?
How many slips did he have?
What can we say about him?
He is an example.
I admire him.
It is enough to see him enter a room.
They are all looking at him.
From the cook to the utility man.
And we talk about people who know him.
That is why he is the one who best understands what is normal.
You don't even have to explain it.
He knows very well how to behave and he always has the right word.
He knows exactly what he has to say and when he has to say it.
Q.
When Argentina won the Copa América, did people seem to be happier for Messi than for the team?
Even his companions, right?
R.
The country needed it.
It had been a long time since he had won.
But, above all, for having Leo and seeing him win.
It's true, sometimes it seems that people are happy because Messi won and not so much because he won the national team.
But that's because of what he represents to the rest of the world.
And that also represents it for his companions.
I think half the world would have gone to hug him at the Maracana.
It was something historic how people received that cup that we won.
Q.
Do you have any explanation as to why a South American team hasn't won a World Cup in 20 years?
R.
If it were for a football issue, we should have won in 2006. And, perhaps, Brazil should have won another World Cup as well.
Argentina, in 2014, their best game was the final and they did not win it.
They are specific issues, specific plays, that leave you out or put you inside.
But if South America hasn't won a World Cup 20 years ago, it's not because of a soccer issue, I'm sure.
Q.
So?
A.
It is very simple.
90% of our footballers are in Europe.
Brazil, too.
And, if you rush me, the same happens with Uruguay.
There is a number issue.
Four or five come from South America and a lot come from Europe.
Q.
Has the League of Nations made the preparation of the South American teams more complicated?
R.
It is not that it complicates us.
It's just not fair.
It is not at all.
If this is a world competition, it cannot be that we have to wait four years to play against Germany, while Spain, for example, can do it four or five times in the same period.
A European team plays a game against the Faroe Islands and then against France and Spain.
They have a scale.
We have a medium scale that is very difficult, but we need to measure ourselves with the Europeans.
Q.
Analyze the group from Argentina.
R.
Difficult, especially the first game.
At one in the afternoon, above.
The legs may be medium hard.
Also, Arabia plays well.
It is a happy team.
Mexico has historically been difficult for us.
I was a teammate with Tata Martino [Mexico coach].
An idol for all of us who have ever played at Newell's.
He did a good job in Mexico.
He's going to make things hard for us.
Poland has very good players and qualified in the playoffs.
That gives you a little more encouragement.
Typical European team, with tall and strong players.
A good goalkeeper and a center forward who is one of the best in the world.
Q.
Is Brazil the rival?
A.
It
's top.
Candidate.
There are seven or eight teams that can win.
And Brazil is one of them.
Above all, because he has had a long process with a coach who is very good.
They have very
spicy
players , who can unbalance at any time.
Q.
And Spain?
R.
Another of the teams that are among the seven or eight candidates.
He has a very marked way of playing by his coach.
And he is very young.
Spain must be from the team with the youngest average age among those who have options for the title.
Luis Enrique put us as candidates.
I give it back.
He is a friend, I wish him the best.
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