Argentina head coach Lionel Scaloni paid tribute to Lionel Messi and defended his squad’s effort after Monday’s (19 July) World Cup final defeat to Spain, saying there was nothing left to prove about his captain’s career while insisting the pain of finishing second would not be forgotten.
Asked about the 39-year-old Messi, who endured his quietest match of the tournament as Spain’s suffocating defensive display restricted him to a single blocked shot, Scaloni said the veteran’s legacy needed no further validation. “He’s 39 years old now. Unbelievable. There’s nothing new to discover from my side,” Scaloni said. “It was crystal clear for me that he’s going to play up until he decided to do so, and that all the team players, teammates, and all of his people were going to support him. I’m sure, I hope, that everyone feels proud of him, of what he’s achieved, because he’s the best football player ever.”
Speaking separately to Telemundo, Scaloni struck a measured tone in reflecting on the 1-0 extra time defeat, which ended Argentina’s bid to become the first side since Brazil in 1962 to retain the World Cup. “We feel sadness, but knowing we left everything out there,” he said. “Eternal gratitude to these guys who reached another World Cup final. They competed until the end. I’ll keep an enormous memory of them. We’re great in victory, and we have to be great in defeat.”
He extended that gratitude to the wider Argentina squad and supporters. “Thanks to the people, to the players, to the country, we gave everything,” Scaloni said. “We arrived here running on fumes, that’s the reality. But if you leave everything out there like we did today, it’s a great example for our country. You lose, and you have to get back up again. There’s no other way.”
Asked directly whether he believed history would remember Argentina as runners up, Scaloni was unequivocal. “Yes, I remember who finishes second,” he said. “It costs so much to get here. Of course we’d have liked to have won. Gratitude, and sadness, obviously. But when you leave everything out there, it’s very hard to reproach yourself.”
In further comments, Scaloni argued that finishing runners up should not be viewed purely as failure. “It’s very difficult to make people understand to enjoy being runners up just as much as winning a tournament. It’s also success,” he said. “I can see people are aware of what we’ve achieved and how we’ve achieved this, especially because I already cried my heart out in the locker room. That’s why I’m not crying now. But I do have to be thankful to this group because they were warriors, and that is the truth. We competed against an amazing team, and they told us that they were really surprised by how competitive we were. This is very positive, and I hope that future generations are also influenced by this.”
Argentina became only the fourth team in the last four editions to lose a World Cup final as defending champions, following Brazil in 1998 and France in 2022, having previously suffered the same fate in 1990. Only Italy in 1938 and Brazil in 1962 have successfully retained the trophy after reaching a repeat final. Messi, who finished the tournament with eight goals and four assists, was awarded the Silver Ball behind Spain’s Rodri, while Kylian Mbappe claimed the Golden Boot for a second consecutive tournament as the competition’s leading scorer.
