Damarcus Beasley shatters Lionel Messi’s lasting greatness
Damarcus Beasley joins Lori Lindsay and John Arnold to discuss Lionel Messi’s enduring legacy and how he continues to perform at an elite level late in his career.
Editor’s note: Follow us for updates from Argentina – Cape Verde.
MIAMI — It’s not an impressive list: Cesar Menotti, Carlos Bilardo, Tata Martino, Marcelo Bielsa, Jose Pekerman, Diego Armando Maradona.
Argentina has many great coaches. Lionel Scaloni may overshadow them all.
As he prepares for Friday’s Round of 32 match against Cape Verde, his 100th game in charge of the Albiceleste, he is chasing only Guillermo Stabile for both longevity and trophies. Stabile managed 115 games for Argentina from 1939 to 1958, winning six Copa America trophies in the process.
Scaloni has already led Argentina to two Copa America titles and the team is working on adding a second World Cup to add a fourth star to the top of the jersey after Menotti and Bilardo won one each.
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This is something no one expected when Scaloni took over the role in 2018.
The federation turned to Scaloni for stability, although the young former right-back or midfielder had only experience as a head coach at Under-20 level. Scaloni led Argentina to victory in the 2019 Copa America, then to the 2022 World Cup, then won the 2024 tournament and retained South America’s title, so he got more than that from an unproven manager.
Critics will point out that Mr. Scaloni’s main job is not to spoil anything. The best players in the world, a generation of players who had won titles at youth level, and an already established culture awaited him when he took over.
This alleviated some of the tactical challenges Messi had, allowing him to still stand out as age demands a change in his game, rebuilding the attack after Angel Di Maria’s international retirement, and keeping the defense fresh as leaders like Nicolas Otamendi and Nicolas Tagliafico age.
But what is also overlooked is how Scaloni assessed what the national team needed and worked to provide it. Scaloni has been around the sport for many years, serving as a mentor and mentor to players, helping them not only solve problems on the field, but overcome challenges in life.
“The majority of Argentines understand football: 4-3-3 or 4-4-2, but for me there are fundamental things that are not technical, tactical or strategic. They are really on the other side,” Scaloni said in a miniseries released this summer. “Why do you get along with other people? Because you’re friends, because you give more to this ball? That’s what I grew up thinking. We’re all in this together.”
What did Scaloni do that Tata Martinez, Jorge Sampaoli and other veteran managers couldn’t?
With a long history of playing the sport, understanding tactics, and being called upon to fill a variety of roles, many players valued Scaloni’s life experience and wisdom as much or more than his tactical diagrams.
“He made me understand that just like football, you can look at life from different points of view,” said Rodrigo De Paul, who counted himself in 90 of the 100 matches coached by Scaloni. “I always remember this part: The most important thing is that we are not soccer players, we are people who play soccer.
“That word is very important to me because behind every player there is a person with a lot of problems and a lot of satisfactions and dreams. When you see the coach understand that, you feel like you’re in a more comfortable place. I think that explains his strengths that have brought us here.”
Boiling Scaloni’s success down to the program he inherited also ignores the fact that many more established coaches had the same conditions as Scaloni but were unable to get Argentina over the hump.
In an atmosphere where everything around him tends towards hype and grandeur, Scaloni remains calm. He is deferential in press conferences, but often uses them as a way to keep the temperature down, answering candidly and politely when asked questions about Argentina’s chances of defending the title and, at times, outlandish questions such as whether Argentina will try to get goalkeeper Dave Martinez to score in the 2024 Copa America.
Sometimes he prefers to simply pull out a highlight video or point out players in the locker room.
“What you see, I see. When you ask me this, it’s a little bit awkward because I don’t know what else to say,” he said last week when asked about Messi’s greatness. “Sometimes you say too much,” he added Thursday.
Even when I want to talk to someone, I often think about their human side. He is known for expressing his emotions and sometimes being moved to tears by what his team is going through.
It happened during a team talk before the 2022 World Cup final, the players recalled in a mini-series, laughing at what assistant Walter Samuel called “the worst team talk ever.”
“It was his style of team talk,” De Paul says with a smile during the series.
Perhaps, as time passes and more experience is gained, coach Scaloni will be less impressed by a return to the finals, but that is his focus. Not for personal recognition or to become the first Argentina coach to win two World Cups, but because he is practicing what he preaches to his players: It may be the last time they wear the Argentina shirt, and they should cherish it.
Will Lionel Scaloni leave the Argentina national team after the 2026 World Cup?
It’s not entirely clear what the 48-year-old will do next. The coach said on Thursday that his contract with the AFA remains until the end of the year, but the federation understands he is open to talking about an extension.
There’s no real reason for him to quit one of the best jobs in the world, a job he did extremely well. But at some point he may want to see if he can get along with his leaders and his Argentine compatriots.
Fans hope he makes the jump when he’s ready. Asked earlier in the tournament if he would commit to one day managing his former club Estudiantes de la Plata, Scaloni joked that he was already too committed to himself, having previously said he would manage Deportivo La Coruña, where he played 200 games, and other former clubs.
For now, Scaloni isn’t thinking about that. Whether you believe as he says Cape Verde could shock Argentina in the last 32 or not, it’s hard not to believe that he’s putting his full attention on that matchup.
“You have someone to face and respect and someone to make things work for you,” he said Thursday. “The difference is small now. If I lose, I’ll go home.”
Even if Scaloni’s Argentina side suffer a crushing defeat, he will occupy a high place in his country’s football history. Perhaps ‘Scaloneta’ will continue to run, with the humble driver continuing to rack up accolades and accomplishments along the way.
