Argentina can’t even rest on its greatest source of joy, its football team. To the uncertainty about the economic and social scope of the adjustment announced by elected President Javier Milei, which he will adopt with inflation close to 150% per year, left to him by the outgoing Peronist government, the country added another 48 hours later Add dilemma The elections: Will Lionel Scaloni stop being coach of the “Albiceleste”, the current world champion?
It is not an insignificant doubt for the country’s everyday life: you don’t eat football, but in Argentina you breathe it, it is your ministry of happiness and Scaloni – along with Lionel Messi – its main ambassador. With no previous experience, the coach took over in 2018 and built the best cycle in the team’s history with three titles: the Copa América Brazil 2021, the finalissima against the European champions (Italy, 2022) and of course the Qatar 2022 World Cup of 66 games Argentina won 48, drew 12 and lost 6, a triumphant architecture whose continuity was threatened even after an epic victory at a foreign rodeo in the great South American classic.
Tuesday’s Brazil-Argentina classic at the Maracana Stadium looked like another event on Messi’s farewell tour amid a very long qualifier for the 2026 World Cup: 18 dates to clear six and a half places out of ten participants. And yet, although the Argentina captain played injured and did not perform well until he asked for a substitution 30 minutes into the second half, in the end it was an evening of triple attention, first in the stands, then on the pitch and finally – and basically – at the press conference.
This was followed by another unprovoked use of force by the Rio police against foreign fans at the Maracana, in this case Argentine fans, which delayed the start of the game by 30 minutes – Messi led his players to the dressing room in protest – a result that can be seen in another case with a common thread: Argentina’s 1-0 victory thanks to a header from Nicolás Otamendi meant Brazil’s first defeat at the Maracana in the history of qualifying.
The goal was shouted in Buenos Aires and the rest of the country’s cities, the way goals are celebrated at World Cups, with screams heard dozens of meters away, but the treaties between the joy and Argentina appear to be short-lived. While the players had just celebrated in front of their compatriots at the Maracana Stadium – not all of them, as some fans had been taken to hospitals after the beating – Scaloni did what he usually hasn’t done before: put himself at the center of the evening, him to occupy it far from him to triumph.
Without asking him and as a coach who measures all his words, Scaloni decided to say at the end of the conference: “Now it’s time to do something important that I wanted to say and that is to stop the ball “To begin.” Think. During this time, these players have given me a lot and I have to think a lot about what I’m going to do. It’s not a goodbye or anything, but I have to think because the bar is very high and it’s hard to keep going and it’s hard to keep winning and these guys are making it hard. I’ll tell the president and the players later. This team needs a coach who has full energy.” Then Scaloni got up from the table and left.
The strange thing was that the coach did not speak to the players or the leaders about the problem, neither in the locker room nor in the hotel, so it was clear that he had chosen to issue a public warning. To whom? is the question. Was it a coded message to the president of the Argentine Football Association, Claudio Tapia, with whom the coach did not always get along well? Or the players so that they don’t lose their own claim?
Another sentence from Scaloni that night in Brazil went unnoticed. “It’s been a difficult week,” he said, and the first natural interpretation was the sporting splinters from last Thursday’s 2-0 defeat to Uruguay at the Bombonera in Buenos Aires. But after the coach’s surprising confession last night, one of the discussions centered around alleged splits due to the political campaign that had also reached football.
In the hours before the presidential election, the AFA played heavily against Milei – the promoter of joint-stock companies in football, a model banned in Argentina – and in favor of the official candidate Sergio Massa, who has a good relationship with Tapia. As the political scientist Carlos Pagni said days ago: “Massa is trying to get a nod from Messi for his candidacy through Tapia, the president of the AFA.” While the clubs lined up to support the system of non-profit civil associations, gave Messi and the rest of the players did not make a political statement in line with the AFA – the only one who gave it was Lisandro Martínez. There is a like for a statement made by players who were against the SA.
The topic was in the air and in the press conference before the game against Uruguay, Scaloni was asked about the SA. “I won’t go into that,” he replied quickly. Beyond the journalistic exchange, was there an attempt by Tapia, just as he tried with Messi according to Pagni, to involve the coach in the political campaign in favor of Massa? If it existed, was it a sufficient reason to make Scaloni so angry? In any case, it is clear that the relationship between the president and the coach has been characterized by tensions for a long time, and not just in the last few hours.
A few weeks before the World Cup, Scaloni confronted Tapia because a party with loud music in the middle of a tour of the United States prevented the team from sleeping. After the success at the World Cup, the contract extension took significantly longer than the president expected.
But beyond this distance of authority, the coach simply referred to a question of sporting “energy”, a “very high bar”. When Marcelo Bielsa retired from the national team in 2004, he mentioned this very word: “I ran out of energy.” Warned Scaloni that he had reached the limit of his cycle and would no longer be able to get the best out of the players ?
With the national team inactive until March and then playing a friendly match against France or the Netherlands while waiting for the 2024 Copa América, the relationship between politics and football continues this week: the AFA has called a meeting for this Thursday so that the clubs can position themselves against the SA, a way to pave the way for Milei and Mauricio Macri, the former president of Argentina and Boca, who has become the political partner of the elected candidate. The rejection is expected to win by 50 to 1 (the only dissenting vote would be Talleres de Córdoba).
Later, in the Argentine summer, there will be an attempt by the players and officials to convince Scaloni to defuse the bomb and stay in office. Argentina has been going through difficult times for some time and the coming ones seem to be even more difficult. But on top of that, he may also have to make do without his biggest lucky charm of late.