Juan Román Riquelme has commented on Lionel Messi and Lionel Scaloni.
Riquelme played alongside Lionel Messi and Lionel Scaloni with the Argentina national team at the 2006 World Cup. In 1997, alongside Lionel Scaloni, Walter Samuel and Pablo Aimar, who are all part of the current Argentina national team coaching staff, Riquelme won the U20 World Cup. Speaking in an interview with TyC Sports, Riquelme spoke about both Messi and Scaloni. Here is what he had to say:
“A coach is very important in a squad but sometimes we make up novels that aren’t so real. It’s easier for coaches with Messi than with other players because you have to give him fewer instructions and because they’re privileged to lead him.
“Scaloni is among the best in the history of our football. Grateful for the joys that he, his technical staff and the players brought us. It makes me very happy because we all grew up together, we have known each other since we were 14 years old. When we had Maradona, we thought there wouldn’t be another one and then we had Messi, who even makes us wonder if he’s even better.”
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Hi is my best of all time.
I just wish he never went to that pathetic club, Barcelona.
They have only ever mistreated the Argentines and dispose of them like they’re rubbish. They did it to Diego, they did it to Riquelme and they even did it to Messi. The 3 greatest Argentinian players in history. I can’t stand that rubbish club from “Catalunya”. That club would have continued to be nobody’s had it not been for Messi.
Really hoping Julian doesn’t go there, as he’s my favourite Argentinian player right now.
Argentinian players are loved and highly respected at Real Madrid. Di Stefano, Valdano, Redondo. Plus players like Gago, Di Maria, Higuaín, Solari all enjoyed success there and fair opportunities.
I Don’t know what happened before the final but it was past,now this is the time to buildup a nrw team with new energetic players.If scaloni wanted to stay then he will consider. But if he not wanted to continue then Nestor Lorenzo would be good choice for the team for Buildup.I prefer no high profile coach like simeone pochettino or like this.Nestor Lorenzo build the colombian team rock solid,unfortunately in portugal game referee give advantge to portugal and disallowed the colombian goal..
Same bro . Overrated high profile coaches wont fit here. So no to simeone
Watching Argentina has been special feeling for me. Players like Batistuta, Redondo, Zanetti, Ortega, and Claudio Lopez were the reason I loved this team.
That painful defeat against the Netherlands in 1998, and Dennis Bergkamp’s incredible goal, hit me really hard back then. But what happened in 2002 was even worse.
By 2006, though, I honestly thought, “This is our time. No one can stop us,” especially looking at the incredible squad we had. But what unfolded was way more heartbreaking than anything that came before it. The anger and sheer frustration I felt after that loss to Germany in 2006 actually made me skip the entire 2010 World Cup. Seriously, I didn’t watch a single match, whether Argentina was playing or anyone else. On top of that, the 2004 and 2007 Copa America finals left a deep sting for anyone who backed the team back then.
Without getting too lost in history, Argentina just didn’t deserve such an ugly end to their 2026 World Cup run.
I really hope that this time around, we finally get a manager who knows how to run the team properly, someone who picks players based on performance, not because of who is friends with whom.
“The ugly end” = World Cup finalists
You’re acting like a spoiled plastic fan. Maybe you should support another team.
Before 2014, Argentina couldn’t even reach a single World Cup semifinal for 30 years. Now the team reaches the final and loses 1-0 to Spain to extra time playing 1 man down, and suddenly it’s considered a complete failure?
People are saying, “Scaloni should be sacked. The squad is picked based on friends and family.” That argument makes no sense. If that were true, why were so many old players left out, such as Guido Rodriguez, Marcos Acuna, Angel Correa, Franco Armani, German Pezzella, and Papu Gomez?
At the same time, many new players were brought into the squad, including Valentin Barco, Giuliano Simeone, Nico Paz, Facundo Medina, Jose Manuel Lopez, Leonardo Balerdi, Juan Musso
If Argentina were only picking friends, there wouldn’t be many newcomers compared to the 2022 World Cup squad.
Your friends and family theory exists only in your head. It has no factual basis.
On another note, It’s difficult to know when to stop; it’s the same for all athletes. However, I think players who are over 30 should gradually move on. This World Cup showed us that squads relying too heavily on players over 30 often struggle to match the stamina and sprint speeds of their mid-20s counterparts. We need young, fresh, energetic players to execute a high-pressing game. Unless it’s someone exceptional like Messi, or a goalkeeper whose role relies less on physical intensity, it’s better to go into a World Cup with an average squad age of around 26–27.
One of the key reasons we won in 2022 was the energy and pressing ability brought by players like Enzo Fernández, Alexis Mac Allister, and Julián Álvarez.
There is little point in keeping some players solely because the 2028 Copa América is coming. We have relatively low-pressure qualifiers this cycle, and we may not get another opportunity like this to introduce younger players and help them establish themselves over the next four years. For a coach, this should be an exciting period, especially for a team like Argentina, which has already qualified but can still use the qualifiers to maintain ranking points while developing the next generation. Only above 30 players who should be considered depending on the form & fitness for 2030 should be. Álvarez, Enzo, Mac A, Cuti, Licha, Lautaro, Dibu
For Gods Sake never take any half fit players to the damn WC its a 1 and half month long tournament. Body cant keep up as we saw already. It doesn’t make any sense.
What a player this guy was, Riquelme the Master of Pause, We may not see a player like him anymore because of how football is played nowadays. No words can describe him, My all time favorites of Argentina will always be, Ortega, Riquelme, Aimar, Bati & Crespo.
I am More inclined towards the 90s generation because it defined my childhood.
Riquleme’s technical ability is exactly what we needed against Spain’s high press. He can hold the ball under intense press, composed, clam and drive the play forward instead of simply passing it backward like our midfielders did. We seriously lack press resistant technical midfielders, and that’s a big reason why we struggled so much. I hope Argentina produces more technically gifted players like him in the future.