- Lionel Scaloni heads the list as the head coach of the Argentina national team
- The late Cesar Luis Menotti is considered to be Argentina’s greatest football mind
At this summer’s Copa America, seven of the 16 participating nations will be led by Argentine coaches. Lionel Scaloni heads the list as the head coach of the Argentina national team. Marcelo Bielsa leads Uruguay, while Colombia and Venezuela are coached by Nestor Lorenzo and Fernando Batista, respectively.
Chile made a big hire with the appointment of Ricardo Gareca, and Paraguay, who had fired Argentine Guillermo Barros Schelotto in 2023, replaced the former Boca Juniors forward with his compatriot Daniel Garnero. Gustavo Alfaro manages the CONCACAF side Costa Rica, who coached Ecuador at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
This isn’t a new phenomenon in South America and certainly not for the continent’s most prestigious international competition. At the 2015 Copa America, all four semifinalists (Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Paraguay) were coached by Argentine managers. The 2019 edition of the tournament featured three Argentine managers at the semifinal stage.
Managers from Argentina have always been highly sought after at both the domestic and international levels. But why? In South America, it’s a debate that delves into everything from football heritage to inferiority complexes and fanatical patriotism.
Argentina is the land of Alfredo Di Stefano, Diego Maradona, and Lionel Messi. Greatness in football is a virtue that Argentines have come to expect. Their most successful managers at both club and international levels are often revered for their philosophical approaches to football.
The late Cesar Luis Menotti is considered to be Argentina’s greatest football mind. Menotti, who passed away in May at the age of 85, coached Argentina to the World Cup title in 1978. His career highlights included coaching Argentina from 1974 to 1983 and stints with Barcelona, Boca Juniors, and River Plate. Up until his death, Menotti was the Argentina Football Association’s (AFA) director of football.
The chain-smoking tactical guru spoke as eloquently as an award-winning novelist. Menotti’s wisdom helped to position Argentine football, specifically the national team, as a conceptual idea rather than a magnet for passionate fandom.
The national team is a very serious place to be, Menotti said in 2019 after he accepted the AFA’s appointment. Every ball that’s kicked by a player awakens a cultural manifestation. Were going to support that cultural growth because it’s something that clubs cannot do. Only the Argentina national team can.
Menotti also once claimed that a double midfield pivot was a lie.
The ball can be recovered not by the accumulation of troops, but rather through the recovery of space. That’s how (Johan) Cruyffs Holland did it, Menotti said.
The ability to express football ideas as if one were a professor of an advanced university course is synonymous with many past and present coaches from Argentina. Managers from Argentina are often viewed as both tacticians and capable leaders. That assumption can lead to nationalistic debates across South America.
When Colombia hired current manager Lorenzo, a former Argentina national team defender, Colombians joked on social media that an Argentine passport was a requirement for the job. Lorenzo replaced Colombian Reinaldo Rueda, a highly esteemed coach in South America.
To make matters more contentious, Lorenzo is the second Argentine manager to lead Colombia in recent years after Jose Pekerman, who coached Colombia from 2014 to 2018.
I was surprised by Lorenzo’s hire, said former Colombia and Costa Rica national team coach Jorge Luis Pinto in 2022. He doesn’t have the status to manage the Colombian national team.
Efran Pachn is the former president of Bogota-based club Independiente Santa Fe. When Lorenzo was hired, Pachn labeled the decision as ridiculous and embarrassing.
We have (Colombian) coaches who have managed at World Cup tournaments and have enriched other national teams, Pachn said. The smart decision would have been to hire every (Colombian) coach who has been at a World Cup and assemble a staff that way.
Clearly, Pachn let his pride get the best of him. Lorenzo, it turns out, is a capable national team manager. Colombia arrives at the 2024 Copa America on a 19-game unbeaten streak under the Argentine.
Coupled with their perceived tactical acumen, Argentine coaches are also known and respected for their ability to adapt to the different cultural idiosyncrasies of South American football. Domestic leagues throughout the region are littered with Argentine managers. The same can be said for players of Argentine descent. They often leave their country’s first division to join some of South America’s top club sides.
Only arch-rivals and five-time world champions Brazil can confidently look down upon the Albiceleste in a battle of egos. Brazilian clubs are dominating in South America, but the 2022 World Cup title has strengthened Argentina’s hold as the continent’s best national team. But even in Brazil, where the language can be an initial obstacle, some Argentine coaches have had success.
The pay is much better in Brazil, but it’s a trend that has cemented the notion that Argentina produces the best managers in South America. Coaches Gabriel Milito (Clube Atletico Mineiro), Ramon Daz (Vasco da Gama), Eduardo Coudet (Internacional, Nicolas Larcamon (Cruzeiro), and Juan Pablo Vojvoda (Fortaleza) joined more than 40 Argentine players who featured in Brazis top flight in 2024. On the other hand, it’s rare to see Brazilian players in the Argentine league, let alone coaches. Take for instance Boca Juniors. The Buenos Aires-based super club has only hired two Brazilian coaches since its inception in 1905 and a total of nine foreign-born managers.
There’s also the Scaloni effect. The former interim manager proved to the world that inexperience is not always a determining factor for success. Scaloni, 46, lifted the 2022 World Cup trophy despite never having been a head coach at senior level. Now considered one of the sport’s premier man managers, Scaloni is chasing his fourth title with Argentina this summer (after the 2021 Copa America, the 2022 CONMEBOL-UEFA Cup of Champions, and the 2022 World Cup).
The 2024 Copa America will be another showcase for Argentine managers on the international stage, which will prove that their influence in South America isn’t a trend but rather a ubiquitous reality. Barring a complete collapse by the CONMEBOL sides, it’s more than likely that an Argentine will coach at least one team in the final.
THE ATLETHIC
