The Argentine national team won the World Cup in Qatar. It was well and truly deserved based on their character, formidable performances and high quality of play. However, the Albiceleste has also left several non-football lessons for us to learn.
The Argentine team lost its first match against Saudi Arabia, a more than modest team, but was able to overcome this initial setback by winning the World Cup. What led to such an achievement, beyond the extraordinary individualities of the team and management? First of all, the attitude of the technical director, Lionel Scaloni, who, after the defeat, spoke at a press conference and asked for calm, reminding us that it is only a game and that it is always possible to win or lose. The trainer's statement certainly stood out, especially when viewed against the background of a country such as Argentina, where fanaticism reigns.
Moreover, instead of fighting and blaming each other, the players both recognized and accepted their mistakes, chose to correct them and pull together better than before. Another situation that is not commonplace in Argentina, where imaginary enemies are often blamed for serious domestic or personal problems.
Another interesting point is that the team opted to stay away from politics. Kirchnerism must not have been at all happy about not being able to present itself alongside the national team and gain political capital out of it, especially in the midst of the deep socio-economic crisis that Argentina is presently going through. In fact, government spokeswoman Gabriela Cerruti, a woman not unaccustomed to lying, stated that politics should not be mixed with soccer. Of course, if the team had been closer to these power merchants, Kirchnerism would most likely have looked for any opportunity to take advantage of the situation. However, the players stood firm and refused to be seen alongside any politicians, from either the ruling or opposition parties. In contrast to previous technical directors, such as the Kirchnerist Alejandro Sabella (World Cup 2014) and Jorge Sampaoli (World Cup 2018). The former reached the final and let Cristina use him and the players upon their return to Argentina, however, the latter did not because he was eliminated in the round of 16 and because the president at the time was Mauricio Macri, but surely he also had the desire to be another useful fool of Kirchnerism.
The performance of the Argentine national team was impeccable both on and off the field and provided a series of lessons that citizens should learn: fanaticism is harmful; our lives cannot be guided by politics; and work, effort and merit work better to achieve success than blaming others for our problems or demanding that someone else give us everything without deserving it.
And what about the late Diego Maradona? A man accustomed to groveling before the powerful and who, besides being extremely arrogant, violent and rude, was close to several Argentine presidents, but his last great love was Kirchnerism, for whom he let himself be used in a most disgusting way and attacked his opponents in the worst possible ways. He not only became a soldier of Kirchnerism, but also of the Castro, Chavez and Iranian dictatorships. Furthermore, despite having been a failure as a manager, he was in charge of the Argentina national team at the 2010 World Cup only because of what he had done with his feet decades before. The result went as expected: they lost 4-0 to Germany in the quarterfinals. Nevertheless, his arrogance remained and during his time with Mexican soccer in 2018, he harshly criticized the national team's current head coach: "I played with Tata Martino at Newell's and he is a great person. Now they talk about him in Mexico and we Argentines have the boy Lionel Scaloni, who is not to blame for being there, but the problem is that he thinks he is a coach and wants to go to the World Cup. He can go, but to the motorcycle World Cup, not the soccer World Cup." He later added: "Now they are putting Scaloni in. Scaloni is a great guy but he can't even direct traffic. How can we give the Argentine national team to Scaloni! Are we all crazy?" What would Maradona say today about his comments if he were alive?
Another sign of distancing from power was given by the goalkeeper of the Argentine national team, Dibu Martínez, who during the World Cup expressed his satisfaction for bringing "joy [to the population] in the face of so many economic problems." A statement that certainly must not have gone down well with the Government.
Another positive point of the Argentine success in Qatar is the fact that a good person such as Messi, with his human flaws, of course, is today the one who most represents Argentina and is not an unpresentable figure like Maradona.
Despite the positive behavior of the national team, I must also point out that it would have been a great gesture if they had demonstrated in some way, even with a flag, against the possible execution of an Iranian soccer player, who may be killed by the authorities for the mere fact of having participated in a demonstration in favor of women's rights in Iran. As the authoritarian Qatari regime is an ally of the bloodthirsty Persian theocracy, it would have been very important and a way to put pressure on the ayatollahs to stop the executions ,not only of peaceful demonstrators, but also of homosexuals.
However, beyond this minor detail, the performance of the Argentine national team was impeccable both on and off the field and provided a number of lessons that citizens should learn from: fanaticism is harmful; our lives cannot be guided by politics; and work, effort and merit work best to achieve success, rather than blaming others for our problems or demanding that others give us everything without deserving it.
Cheers, champions!
