Argentina's World Cup Journey: Loyalty vs. Youth
Argentina arrived in Kansas City like a band back together for one last world tour. Same faces, same songs, same frontman. Lionel Scaloni has doubled down on the group that conquered Qatar, and he is daring time – and tired legs – to try and stop them.
Seventeen of the 26 players who landed in the United States were on the plane to the 2022 World Cup. Sixteen were part of the squad that ended the country’s long wait for a major trophy at the 2021 Copa America. Ten of those started the World Cup final; only Angel Di Maria, now retired from international duty after bowing out as Player of the Match in the 2024 Copa America final, is missing from that iconic XI.
This is not a rebuild. It is a reunion.
Where Brazil and England have refreshed, Argentina have stayed together. Only 11 of Brazil’s players from five years ago have made it to this World Cup, three of them goalkeepers. England have kept nine from their Euro 2021 run. Argentina? They have turned continuity into a philosophy.
But continuity has a cost.
A golden core, an ageing spine
Nine members of Scaloni’s squad are over 30. That list includes Emiliano Martinez, Rodrigo De Paul and, of course, Lionel Messi, who will turn 39 during what will be a record sixth World Cup.
At the other end, the future is barely represented. Just three players – Giuliano Simeone, Valentin Barco and Nico Paz – are under 25. The likes of Franco Mastantuono and Alejandro Garnacho stayed at home. The average age sits north of 29, and the question hangs over this group: how long can they keep running at full tilt?
Because the issue is not just age. It’s mileage.
Eleven players followed up the 2024 Copa America by heading straight into last summer’s Club World Cup. For some, the last three seasons have blurred into one long, unbroken slog of flights, finals and must-win nights.
Enzo Fernandez and Julian Alvarez are the clearest examples. Since the start of the 2024-25 season, both have played 121 games for club and country. One hundred and twenty-one. Alvarez limped through the end of Atletico Madrid’s campaign with an ankle problem. Fernandez, still only 25 and in prime physical condition, has covered so much ground that it feels like a matter of when, not if, the toll shows.
Alexis Mac Allister already looks like a warning sign. He did not go to the Club World Cup, yet the Liverpool midfielder has still clocked 119 appearances over the past two seasons. He is expected to start Argentina’s opener against Algeria on Tuesday, but his form has dipped sharply.
Former Liverpool winger Jermaine Pennant put it bluntly on TalkSport after criticising Mac Allister during a defeat to Manchester City in February. “After your injury in pre-season, you’ve come back a shadow of what you are; it seems like your legs have gone,” he said, explaining that in that game Mac Allister “was literally a bystander”. It was an observation born of frustration, but it echoed what many had already seen.
Scaloni, though, is not blinking.
Scaloni stays loyal – again
At Arrowhead Stadium, seven of the starters from the Lusail final are expected to line up again against Algeria. It could easily have been 10, had Alvarez, Nicolas Tagliafico and Nahuel Molina not arrived nursing minor injuries.
Cristian Romero, Nicolas Otamendi, Fernandez, De Paul, Mac Allister and Messi are all set to reprise their roles. Lautaro Martinez, fresh from winning the Golden Boot at the 2024 Copa America, should step in for Alvarez up front. This is a team that knows every movement, every cue, every crisis.
But does Scaloni dare to break that trust to inject youth when it matters?
His conservatism is written all over the left-back decision. With Tagliafico unavailable, the obvious move would be to unleash Barco. The left-sided Strasbourg player – widely expected to join Chelsea this summer – has scored in two of Argentina’s last three matches, playing slightly higher up the pitch but operating in his natural corridor. By trade, he is a left-back. At 21, with energy to burn, he offers exactly the kind of thrust this ageing side lacks down one flank.
Instead, Scaloni is set to slide Lisandro Martinez into that role. The Manchester United defender is a fierce competitor and a far more secure one-on-one marker than Barco, which matters when Riyad Mahrez is drifting in from Algeria’s right. But Martinez is a centre-back at heart. He will not gallop forward with the same abandon. Argentina gain security; they lose adventure.
On the opposite side, youth will get its chance, but not in the way many imagined. Simeone is set to start at right-back, a role he does not know as well as the No. 9 on his back. With Molina and Gonzalo Montiel still building up fitness after recent injuries, Simeone is likely to hold the fort until one of the specialists can do more than cameo from the bench.
It is a patchwork of old and new, of compromise and loyalty. The real fault line, though, runs through midfield.
The Paz question
If there is a symbol of Argentina’s potential new era, it is Nico Paz.
At 21, he has lit up Serie A with Como across the last two seasons. Under the guidance of Cesc Fabregas, Paz scored 13 goals and provided seven assists this past campaign, driving a newly promoted side to a remarkable fourth-place finish and Champions League qualification. The league named him Best Midfielder at its end-of-season awards. Real Madrid are widely expected to activate the buy-back clause in his contract this summer.
Paz plays with a freedom that has become rare in Argentina’s midfield. He looks forward. He takes risks in possession. He threads passes into spaces others do not see. His exuberance stands in stark contrast to the more laboured displays Mac Allister has produced in recent months.
For now, a minor knee issue and Scaloni’s hierarchy mean Paz is likely to begin this World Cup on the bench. But he is too talented, and this team too stretched, for him to remain a spectator for long if Argentina stutter.
Scaloni has been here before. In Qatar, he turned the tournament on its head by dropping a then-21-year-old Fernandez into the starting XI midway through the group stage. That bold call changed everything. The coach’s loyalty is real, but so is his capacity for ruthlessness when the situation demands it.
He may need that streak again.
A brutal route, a narrow margin
Argentina’s path is lined with traps. Win Group J – where they face Algeria, Austria and Jordan – and the round of 32 could bring the runners-up from Group H, potentially Spain but more likely Uruguay. Survive that, and a last-16 tie against the runners-up from Group D (currently Australia) or Group G (possibly Belgium, Egypt or Iran) looks manageable on paper.
Then the temperature rises.
If the seedings hold, Portugal await in the quarter-finals. Messi against Cristiano Ronaldo, one last time, with a World Cup semi-final on the line and the clock ticking on both of their careers.
By then, Scaloni cannot still be wondering about his best team. He will need a side that can press, run and suffer for 90 minutes and beyond. That might mean breaking up the old guard. It might mean trusting Paz over a tired Mac Allister. It might mean Barco over another safe, conservative choice.
This group has already delivered three major trophies for their country. They know how to win, how to manage moments, how to drag themselves over the line. But time is undefeated, and this World Cup may demand a version of Argentina that looks just different enough to keep pace.
Scaloni has built a brotherhood. The question now is whether he is willing to disturb it to give Messi the send-off a generation expects.
