The birth of football in Argentina owes to cricket. When the organisers of the first-ever football match in Argentina were struggling to find a ground good enough for the event, the Buenos Aires Cricket Committee allowed them to have the match on their ground in the coastal barrio of Palermo in Buenos Aires. It was 1867.
Flash forward 150 years, there are 700,000 births registered in Argentina every year; three million boys and girls play football; a third of them dream of becoming professional football players; less than one per cent of that million make it to the Primera División, the major football league in Argentina. And just a handful of them are chosen to play in the World Cup. The numbers set the context of the dreams, the aspirations and the heartbreaks that Lionel Scaloni carried on his shoulders when he was made the national team coach of Argentina in 2018 just after its humiliation in the Russian edition of the FIFA World Cup that year.
When he took over the team as their caretaker manager, Argentina and their supporters worldwide were yet to recuperate from the shock of 2014 final followed by losses in two successive Copa America finals and the round-of-16 exit of 2018, which was almost a déjà vu of 2002. Also, football South America had become the butt of jokes, not having touched the World Cup trophy since 2002.
The quaint Russian town of Bronnitsy was the scene of one of the tensest moments the Argentina team experienced during the 2018 World Cup when Lionel Messi stood up to the then-coach Jorge Sampaoli and yelled: “We don’t get what you’re saying. We no longer trust you. We want to have an opinion.” Sampaoli had inherited an ageing squad under a scandal-hit soccer federation and never looked like putting his stamp on a side that was inconsistent for most of his tenure.
Asociación del Fútbol Argentino (AFA) bid adieu to the 58-year-old Sampaoli and his assistants. The decision meant that Argentina, world champions in 1978 and 1986, were looking for their fourth coach in four years. Such chaos was hardly surprising for any and showed that AFA was still in a state of complete disarray that it had got into in 2016, when it had been accused of financial mismanagement of match broadcasting funds and fraudulent administration.
Lionel Scaloni celebrates with Lionel Messi after the win in the penalty shootout during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 quarter-final match between Netherlands and Argentina. Picture: Getty Images
When Sampaoli was selected as a coach, AFA was headed by a Normalization Committee comprising representation from FIFA and Conmebol, South America’s apex football body. Scaloniwas fortunate to have a more credible Claudio Tapia as the president of AFA, who started his tenure with a matured goal of increasing the influence of AFA within world football’s governing body and Conmebol. So, the Argentine order in football had also changed by 2018. The tide was turning.
Scaloni was a novice in being a head coach, but he was not new to coaching. He had been part of Sampaoli’s coaching staff at Sevilla as well as with the La Albiceleste. Sadly, he was not newto heartbreaks at the most coveted cup either. He had been part of the national team which took part in the 2006 World Cup. The side played some of the most attractive football in the competition. But they lost to Germany in the quarter-final, thanks to some substitutions which remain inexplicable till date to many. Scaloni appeared in only one matchin the whole tournament, which Argentina won against Mexico. But why would AFA select an inexperienced person for such a role, which gets constantly scrutinised under the microscope by football pundits? After paying the severance to Sampaoli, AFA could afford a Scaloni and not the illustrious likes of Mauricio Pochettino, Diego Simeone or Marcelo Gallardo.
The rise of Scaloni to the helm reminds one of the legendary Darwin E. Smith becoming the CEO of Kimberly-Clark, a stodgy old paper company whose stock hadfallen 36 per cent behind the general market over the 20 years prior to his taking over. In fact, a director pulled Darwin Smith, the mild-mannered in-house lawyer, aside and reminded him that he lacked some of the qualifications for the position.
In a similar fashion, the Argentine press minced no words to tell Claudio Tapia that he had made a wrong choice. One of the legends of modern football commented in an inebriated tone during a press conference: “He (Scaloni) can go, but to the motorcycle World Cup, not the soccer one…. Good lad but can’t even direct traffic.” If the legend were alive on December 18, 2022, he would have been the happiest to eat his words, perhaps as literally as did the British historian David Frith after India’s triumph at the 1983 cricket World Cup.
Darwin Smith appeared somehow meek or soft, which was his in-born façade, and people who fell for it were terribly mistaken. His awkward shyness and lack of pretence was coupled with a fierce, even stoic, resolve toward life. Scaloni was no different. Below his calm and post-match stoicism, he was planning to build enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will.
In retirement, Smith reflected on his exceptional performance, saying simply, “I never stopped trying to become qualified for the job.” In World Cup victory, Scaloni said, “The criticism seemed normal to me when I took the job, and it still seems that way today.” Does this mean leaders like Darwin Smith or Scaloni do not have any ego? They do. But they channel their ego into the larger goal of building a great company or national team. They are incredibly ambitious. But their ambition is first and foremost for the ‘us’ and not the ‘me’.
Emiliano Martinez of Argentina saves the second penalty from Kingsley Coman of France in the penalty shootout during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Final match between Argentina and France at Lusail Stadium on December 18, 2022, in Lusail City, Qatar. Picture: Getty Images
Management gurus often say that great leaders would begin by setting a new vision and strategy. But Scaloni decided to walk the ‘First Who… Then What’ path. First, he got the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats — and then he figured out where to drive it. The old adage, “People are your most important asset”, turns out to be wrong. People are not your most important asset. The right people are.
Scaloni formed a coaching staff bringing in his former teammates Pablo Aimar, Roberto Ayala and Walter Samuel. They all had two things in common. Humility and the hunger to succeed. Like General Hernan Costes who burned his ships upon landing, leaving only one option for his warriors — succeed or die — Scaloni did away with almost the entire set of star players who appeared in Moscow.
Yes, he burned his warships Lionel Messi, Angel Di Maria and Kun Aguero to start with. Over several friendlies and a comme ci comme ça performance at Copa America 2019, he finally settled on a set of players who would be in the starting 11. The rest of the positions were up for grabs based on performance.
As the Argentine proverb says, ‘if you have a tail of straw, then keep away from the fire’, Scaloni cherrypicked his first few opponents. But the team’s dismal and, to some extent, confused display in those few easy friendlies invited many didn’t-I-say-so comments. Fans exploded on Twitter. Some wrote, “Our coach is a confirmed idiot.” Another wrote, “Our team is so bad it’s not even funny.” However, one of them unwittingly became a Nostradamus when he wrote, “I really want to keep trusting Scaloni and his development process (if you can even call it that)…” Yes, Scaloni was following his own process, subtly creating his own bus and with his own people.
The Argentine passion for football gave birth to many a lore like the one around the Virgin of Copacabana. Carlos Bilardo’s 1986 World Cupwinning squad, training at high altitude in Argentina’s northwest for the Mexico finals, were reported then to have made a promise to the Virgin of Copacabana to return if they won the title — but they never went back till 2011. The lore that the national team was jinxed was born out of this broken promise to the divine.
Like a great CEO, Scaloni knew the importance of stories. So, behind the dull display and seemingly whimsical team compositions in the first few friendlies, which included a heartbreak against Brazil, he was building his own concept out of chaos and creating a team that would rally around that story. If you don’t believe in my story, the door of the bus is open for you to get down. Period.
He knew that stories like ‘We must win the cup’, ‘Let’s do it’ were well past their shelf life. So, his new story was around curiosity. What made 2014 so hard — unsatisfied curiosity. How does it feel to see the Messiah of La Albiceleste lift the Coupe du Monde in air? The question reminded Argentines of the heart-wrenching slo-mo video of a Messi walking past the cup to receive his prize for being a forgotten second to Germany.
In a land of apotheosis of Diego Maradona, the story worked, and Messi returned to the national team because he was won over with the project of Scaloni. Soon people realised the real reason why Tapia selected Scaloni. Scaloni and Messi were friends who shared the heartbreaks of 2006 and 2018.
Now that Scaloni has accepted a second stint, it would be interesting to see what new concept he makes his team rally around. Maybe curiosity again — how does it feel to do what our archnemesis did for the last time in 1962? Brazil won two successive cups. Can’t we?
Fabio Capello presents Lionel Scaloni with the Best FIFA Men’s Coach 2022 award during The Best FIFA Football Awards 2022 on February 27, 2023 in Paris, France. Picture: Getty Images
However, many found nothing fresh and startling in Scaloni’s managerial model of “genius with a thousand helpers”. They found it risky too. What if the genius fails? What happens when the genius departs? They got their answers when his side drew level against mighty Germany without the Messiah. The same Messi-less feat was repeated when six of his team scored against a strong Ecuadorian side.
In Qatar, too, when a subdued Messi failed against Poland in a door-die match, MacAllister and Alvarez got the team over the line. Barring these few aberrations, the genius did deliver and match after match we have seen how the entire team barged in on the opponent whenever an ugly tackle was fired on their Messiah.
Scaloni also kept his goal simple. When he said that even the strongest teams would find it difficult to beat his team, the sceptics considered the goal as unambitious at best because, since 1994-95, the governing body of football has been rewarding the winning team two points more than a team that drew. The footballing world never runs short of coaches who talk taller than where their teams end up in a league table. But Scaloni’s words turned out to be such a well-kept promise when Argentina remained unbeaten in 35 matches till the Al-Saqour (Saudi Arabia) pulled out a surprise in their Fifa World Cup 2022 opening game.
Scaloni must have heard about the Greek parable of the hedgehog and the fox. The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. Day in and day out, the fox circles around the hedgehog’s den, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce. Fast, sleek, beautiful, fleet of foot and crafty — the fox looks like the sure winner. When the hedgehog crosses its way, the fox leaps out, bounding across the ground, lightning fast.
“Here we go again. Will he ever learn?” Rolling up into a perfect little ball, the hedgehog becomes a sphere of sharp spikes, pointing outward in all directions. If the fox makes the jump, he is stung. Most of his players did not play together during their club duties. That was not a problem unique to any national team head coach. But his unique problem was that most of his players were very young, new to the national team and many did not even play for the haloed clubs. So, being the hedgehog made perfect sense.
When Emiliano Martínez stood under the crossbar to face France’s Kingsley Coman on December 18, 2022, he was the end product of all the strategic work that Scaloni did as the team manager. Scaloni had offered Emi a seat on his bus because of his courage and ability. Scaloni had made Emi embrace the team psychology — the Stockdale Paradox: You must maintain unwavering faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, AND at the same time have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.
Emi was under pressure. But the team had been under bigger pressure when they were left hanging on the edge by Saudi Arabia. Every time the team was on the edge, the strength of the group came forth. Centre back Lisandro Martinez had said: “In defeat things that you didn’t see in victory come back into the light.” Left back Nicolás Tagliafico had insisted: “If you don’t suffer, it doesn’t count.”
Scaloni had assured the team, “The sun will come up tomorrow”. Scaloni had also prepared Emi to face Coman. In fact, the whole team echoed what midfielder Rodrigo De Paul said about Scaloni: “He is very detailed and, because of how he prepares matches and tactical work, everything ends up happening. If it’s 10 in the morning and he says, ‘good night’, then it’s night for us.” As the fox Coman took the shot, the hedgehog Emi dived to his right.
After the final, De Paul revealed that before the final he had written toMessi on a piece of paper: ‘Today, November 20, I promise you that we will be champions.’ He feels that piece of paper must still be there in the folder in the room. Victorious warriors win first and then go to war,while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win — Sun Tzu wrote in his Sunzi Bingfa. The first 80 minutes of the 2022 final showed La Scaloneta had already won before going into the match. But the quintessential uncertainty that makes tickets sell in football ultimately made the hedgehog fly like a fairy to his right and stop the fox from hitting the net. It was the flight of the Phoenix too. Argentina rose from the ashes of 2018.
The author is a novelist and IT professional