Lionel Scaloni, the Argentine who does not want dramas

Lionel Scaloni, this Thursday in training. JUAN MABROMATA (AFP)

"I look like a philosopher and I don't want to," Lionel Scaloni (Pujato, Argentina, 44 years old) complained in a low voice a week ago.

A philosopher, according to him, for reflecting on the need to de-dramatize football, a message that he has not stopped repeating publicly at the World Cup and that represents an almost moving commitment as the coach of Argentina, where each game is a trip to the abyss.

He recounted a year and a half ago that someone told him that the position made him one of the most important people in the country and he "wanted to answer anything."

He held back and then regretted it.

“All I have to do is direct.

It is important for me not to go further, ”he insisted then.

This Thursday, in the preview of the quarterfinals against the Netherlands (8:00 p.m., World Goal), he returned to his daily dose of relativism: "In the end, this is football, a sport."

With or without dramas, the clash against the Dutch team is presented as a key date for his mandate.

Without any previous experience in elite benches (neither his assistants Aimar, Samuel and Ayala), he was able to change the dynamics of the Albiceleste after the bitter end of the Sampaoli era in Russia 2018, where he was an assistant;

provide a comfortable environment for Messi;

and ending a 28-year drought by lifting the 2021 Copa América. However, now it is about big game, taking a first-rate individual and collective leap.

In the last three decades, Argentina has only reached the semifinals once (2014).

His football so far in Qatar, yes, it has not been discreet, except for flashes of

.

The initial defeat against Saudi Arabia (1-2) led Argentina into a disconcerting tunnel, and the subsequent victory against Mexico (2-0) relieved everyone and led to one of Scaloni's most famous claims during his stay in Doha.

“We should have more common sense and think that it is only football.

Now I receive a message from my brother, crying, who had not heard the meeting.

The feeling is that you are playing something more than a game.

I don't share it, ”he protested in the press room at dawn.

His older brother, Mauro, 46, had gone to thresh wheat at 40 degrees as a way of escaping.

A "listen"

Whatever happens with the Albiceleste, he will always have an advantage: he was already living in Spain when he took office, in Mallorca, many miles from the oppressive climate of Argentine soccer.

That was what he proposed to Alejandro Sabella, the coach who lost the 2014 final (this Thursday marked two years since his death), his wife, for fear of how people would take the defeat.

The current coach, according to sources in the environment, met her and she told him that she had suggested to her husband to go live in Spain after losing against Germany in Brazil, something Sabella refused to do because she knew that the fans were not they would understand.

To Scaloni, his Balearic refuge grants him a saving distance from the outset.

Pujato, a town in the province of Santa Fe with less than 4,000 inhabitants,

Luis Miguel Ramis (52 years old), Tenerife coach, who befriended him after four seasons together at Dépor, points out that he did not convey the idea of ​​wanting to be a coach at all costs.

“He rushed what his career as a player could (until he was 37).

He then wanted to continue to be linked to soccer and one possibility was to grow as an assistant, to help and learn.

He maintained contacts with the Argentine federation and the opportunity came to him ”, comments the Catalan, whose definition of the Scaloni player fits the Argentine prototype: a lot of character, commitment and team role.

At his side he also had other compatriots, such as Turu Flores, Aldo Duscher or Fabricio Coloccini.

At the age of 29, he went to Racing for a campaign and there the memories of a

footballer are similar.

A guy, according to a former player who shared a dressing room with him, who did not hesitate to "criticize and scold those who did not give their all on the field."

“With the coaches he had a good relationship.

He asked them a lot and he was very curious ”, he expands.

“He was smart, he knew where he had to be and handle things.

More political, ”says another person linked at that time to the Santander club.

Scaloni is the youngest coach in the World Cup (44) and will face the oldest, Louis Van Gaal (71), this Friday in Lusail for a place in the semifinals.

Whatever happens, for him, "the next day the sun will rise."

In Argentina it is not known.

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