Argentina and the third star, the last debate of this fifth edition of the MARCA Sports Weekend celebrated the Pompidou museum in Malagaserved to review the long-awaited World Cup for Argentina reached in Qatar, with the former goalkeeper Leo Franco, ex international of the albiceleste and ex rojiblanco, and Mario Husillos, former Argentine soccer player among other Málaga clubs, where he also later served as sports director. Journalist Anthony Rangel moderated the discussion.
“Let’s see if we can make this Cup part of the unit because the memory is still very present. There is a reconciliation with Leo Messi that was needed”, comments Husillos. For his part, the former Atlético goalkeeper shares that opinion: “Whether the team is from Argentina, it feels a lot. In football, as the main sport, it was necessary, as Mario says to see if it serves to unite us. They wanted to celebrate.”
“In 1978 I was very young, that was absolute madness, the second a very special moment due to the Malvinas war, but it is true that this third has been a very big explosion. There has been unanimity for Messi’s triumph because there was that injustice with him. Argentines are like that”, adds the former Málaga player.
The defeat against Saudi Arabia
The defeat of Arabia came up in the debate. “Seeing the result, of course, a bad start, but if you analyze the game you know that you lose one out of a hundred. I was worried about how the national team was going to assimilate it but the truth is that it reached a great level”, says Leo. “As Leo said, I thought that I was still a candidate. Argentina is one of the few countries that thinks that it is necessary to be champion whatever team it has. The coach’s decision-making was key,” says Husillos.
“For me the game in Mexico was key. You had to have people like Scaloni or Leo who were a key leader to give peace of mind after the defeat. Because of how the match went, against the Netherlands you realize that you can be champion. Despite how the game went, the feeling was that this team played with great confidence. It was seen that the team was fresh”, comments the ex goalkeeper of the albiceleste. “With my heart I always thought about it, as a sports director you see it differently. Until 118 extra time he played the same World Cup, but if we lost by one play they would have said other things. But I think that Leo was a lovely leader and Argentina was one of the candidates”, highlights Husillos.
The role of Messi and Maradona
As expected, Messi was one of the central issues of the debate and his comparison with Maradona. “Diego entered through his way of being and through that magical World Cup, he entered through the heart, so he remains installed in one place and does not come out through the head. Messi arrives and many people want him to be Maradona in everything and he has another way of being. For me they are almost incomparable in a sports career, but they didn’t take that into account in Argentina. And he hadn’t won with the national team and now the great reconciliation has come,” says the former Málaga player.
“I believe that the liberation begins when he wins the Copa América. The whole team reached the World Cup without that weight. You could see the change in the game. If Leo had not won anything with the national team, for me at a sporting level his career continues being incomparable with Diego. But Maradona was perhaps the player who made the Argentine feel the most, but the numbers are impossible to refute. Unfortunately in Argentina it is win or lose”, highlights Leo Franco, also a coach and with 329 games in LaLiga Santander as a goalkeeper.
Scaloni’s work
Pablo Guede, who was coach of Málaga, highlighted the courage of Scaloni removing Lautaro or Di María. Or walls. “Years do not make experience. In the final, the coach wins it with two tactical moves. He begins to win the World Cup when he takes González and ‘Tucu’ Correa off the list. He has excellent decision-making power. Scaloni had removed his right eyes before the World Cup. He was a coach who immediately realized that the physical part was going to be key in the World Cup and that is why he had that talk with Paredes that was quite touched “.
Hero Dibu Martinez
Leo spoke as a goalkeeper about the role of Dibu Martínez: “All the champion teams have a great goalkeeper and a great scorer. Dibu was key, he is an extraordinary boy, the passing game he had throughout the World Cup was extraordinary. His courage from above was the strong point for me.”
“Mario Kempes is the one I know best as a leader. Sometimes the path is marked by a substitute. Sometimes you have to leave that space as a coach. I think Argentina has had that leadership in this World Cup”, add Spindles.
“Leo’s gestures, as he transmits, that leadership of Messi is different. They had told him that he did not appear in important games. He scores goals every Sunday, he is the best for almost everyone and How do you assume that people don’t want you at home afterwards?, but the boy went on and on. But he is already one meter above the ground like Diego”, comments Husillos, returning to the role of Messi.
Leo Franco’s advice
Leo Franco spoke of learning for the youngest as a goalkeeper: “It’s a game and you have to enjoy it. The boy has to enjoy it. The one who is a goalkeeper likes to be a goalkeeper and it will always be like that, although it is the greatest responsibility. If a child is a goalkeeper it is because he likes it. We dress in another color. As a boy I arrived and I was a goalkeeper. He has to be the smartest in the team and he is the most responsible. One is born a goalkeeper.”
Praises to the Argentine coaches
Scaloni, Simeone, Gallardo, Pochettino… Leo talks about the level of the Argentine coaches. “For me Scaloni is a master of tactics, you can’t follow him, he has learned it in Italy. In Spain it is an example of how the coaches train as well. They all combine a lot of things.”
Will Messi make it to 2026? asked MARCA journalist Juan Castro. “I think that the path with Scaloni’s renewal is a little easier. It will depend on him. He will arrive with the years very just. He is going for all the records and if he has it in mind he will go looking for it” , says the former goalkeeper. “The Copa América is the intermediate stop and he is going to score a lot and if it goes even slightly well he will play it,” says Mario.
