36 games without defeat, Copa America winner 2021: Argentina is considered a World Cup favorite. Coach Lionel Scaloni wants to combine the advantages of the world champion teams Menotti and Bilardo – and explains the role of the mature exceptional talent.
Interviewed by
Javier Caceres
Lionel Scaloni, 44, has the center of his life on the Germans’ favorite holiday island, Mallorca. This has indirectly to do with what is perhaps the biggest defeat of his life – in the English FA Cup final in 2006. Back then, Scaloni had switched from Deportivo La Coruña to West Ham United as an Argentinian international in order to make it to the 2006 World Cup. He succeeded. West Ham also came close to winning a title for the first time in 26 years in that cup final against Liverpool. But in the 90th minute an unsuccessful liberation – from Scaloni – landed in front of Steven Gerrard’s feet, who took off and scored to make it 3:3. In the end, Liverpool prevailed on penalties.