World Cup set to welcome record number of Argentine coaches

Argentine football is mostly known for producing outstandingly skillful players like Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi – but the country is a talent factory for coaches as well.

“If you want to learn about soccer, you have to travel to Argentina,” Pep Guardiola said before his tactics at Barcelona, Bayern Munich and now Manchester City helped revolutionise the game. Guardiola’s words were uttered after a meeting with two local coaching greats, César Luis Menotti and Marcelo Bielsa.

No country will supply as many coaches in next month’s World Cup. Five will be present in Russia — Jorge Sampaoli (Argentina), José Pékerman (Colombia), Ricardo Gareca (Peru), Héctor Cúper (Egypt) and Juan Antonio Pizzi (Saudi Arabia).

“Argentine coaches are highly valued,” 1978 World Cup winner Mario Kempes said. “They have a strong character and personality to do a good job.”

There are other qualities that make the coaches wanted around the world.

“They have very versatile profiles, allowing them to adapt to new contexts, especially uncertainty,” said Gustavo Aguilera, an executive for the Argentina office of the ManpowerGroup, a provider of workforce services. “They also generate solutions in an efficient way.”

Pizzi, 49, left his role as Chile coach last October after his team failed to qualify for the World Cup. One month later he took over at Saudi Arabia from fellow Argentine, Edgardo Bauza. His “Green Falcons” squad is the lowest-ranked of the 32 World Cup teams and they face host Russia in Moscow on June 14.

Pizzi, who played alongside Guardiola at Barcelona in the 1990s and later took a coaching course with him, is looking to make it to the last 16. “We’ll be in condition to compete,” Pizzi said.

Some speculate the versatility of Argentine coaches may be due in part to the country’s turbulent economic past and state of the national game. “The coaches are used to working in radically changing contexts,” Aguilera said.

They have also learned how to live with extreme pressure in Argentina, where anything but the best is often considered total failure. Aguilera believes this helps build character.

Cúper, 62, took over Egypt’s team in 2015. The Argentine inherited a seventime African champion that had failed to qualify for three successive Nations Cup finals. He had previously suffered final defeats with Huracán, Spain’s Valencia and Italy’s Inter Milan.

However, not only did he lead Egypt to the final at the 2017 African Cup of Nations, the team then qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 28 years.

Cúper’s feats have ended media criticism of his tactics and turned him into a national hero. So much so that football federation officials are hoping he reverses plans to leave after the World Cup.

Pizzi and Cúper will meet in Russia as Saudi Arabia and Egypt are in Group A with Russia and Uruguay.

Argentine coaches are also known for building trust among their players. Without any previous experience coaching a national team, Gareca led Peru to the World Cup finals for the first time in 36 years. As a player, he was even responsible for denying Peru a place at the 1986 World Cup, scoring the goal that ended its qualification hopes.

Gareca, 60, is now credited in the country for ending indiscipline in the team and restoring the elegant ball possession and short-passing style that carried Peru to the quarter-finals in 1970. The team is in Group C with Australia, Denmark and France.

Pékerman, 68, has led Colombia for six years. He previously steered Argentina to three Under-20 world titles and guided the senior squad to the 2006 World Cup quarter-finals before losing to Germany on penalties. Pékerman, who has led the country to two consecutive World Cups, and his team will face Japan, Poland and Senegal in Group H.

Unlike the other Argentine coaches in Russia, Sampaoli was never a footballer and has not managed a first division club on home soil. He took over at Argentina in June 2017, replacing Bauza when the team was on the brink of missing out on the World Cup. Sampaoli, 58, developed his career in Peru and Chile.

Like Bielsa, he likes his teams to attack as a group – and with passion. “[He] is always at the maximum level,” Lionel Messi said recently. “He’s about working with intensity and doing it all at 100 percent.”