Doha, Qatar: While Argentina’s dreams of a third World Cup triumph lie largely Lionel Messi’s shoulders, there is another man bearing the same first name integral to the hopes of the Albiceleste: Lionel Scaloni
At 44, Scaloni is the youngest coach at the World Cup. On Friday, November 9, he will pit his wits against the oldest, 71-year-old Louis Van Gaal, when Argentina take on the Netherlands in the quarter-finals.
“I’m proud to take him on, everyone knows what he’s done for football and how many people have tried to copy him,” Scaloni had said after Argentina beat Australia in the last 16.
“This is one of the pleasures that football gives you, especially as it is happening at a World Cup.”
In his four years of mentoring Argentina, Scaloni has already built up a huge reputation at home, notably for delivering the 2021 Copa America — their first major trophy since the 1986 World Cup and Messi’s first for his country.
Scaloni was born in the small interior town of Pujato in 1978, a little more than a month before Argentina beat the Dutch to win their first World Cup.
Scaloni had a successful playing career mostly for Deportivo La Coruna in Spain as a hard-running wingback. He made it to the Argentina squad for the 2006 World Cup, playing briefly with a young Messi against Mexico.
As a Deportivo player Scaloni had once pipped the Dutch Master Van Gaal’s Barcelona for the 1999-2000 La Liga title.
He cut his coaching teeth at Sevilla as an assistant to Jorge Sampaoli in 2017 and his compatriot took him along when he was awarded the Argentina job ahead of the 2018 World Cup.
Scaloni’s first major tournament was the 2019 Copa America, where Argentina finished third after losing to hosts Brazil in the semi-finals.
Scaloni tightened up the defence and his rejuvenated side — always with Messi at its beating heart, of course — finally delivered the South American title on the back of a 20-match unbeaten streak.
They followed that with an impressive 3-0 win over Euro winners Italy in the “Finalissima” at Wembley in June and by the time they arrived in Qatar, the streak had been extended to 36 games.
After the dramatic upset at the hands of Saudi Arabia, Scaloni has picked up the pieces with wins over Mexico and Poland and got them safely through to the last 16.
The team has long been dubbed La Scaloneta — a play on the coach’s name and the local word for a van inspired by a meme showing the two Lionels at the front of a team bus with the rest of the players in the back.
However, Scaloni emphasises the difficulty of the task facing Argentina, even with Messi in the side.
“All the games are hard,” he said after the Mexico victory. “If you think that just because we won today, we are going to become World Cup winners, you’re wrong.”
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