Why do so many coaches at the Copa America come from Argentina?

This summer’s Copa America will see seven of the sixteen participating countries led by Argentine coaches. Lionel Scaloni tops the list as head coach of the Argentina national team. Uruguay is led by Marcelo Bielsa, while Colombia and Venezuela are coached by Nestor Lorenzo and Fernando Batista respectively.

Chile made a major signing with the appointment of Ricardo Gareca, and Paraguay, who had sacked Argentine Guillermo Barros Schelotto in 2023, replaced the former Boca Juniors striker with his compatriot Daniel Garnero. CONCACAF side Costa Rica are managed by Gustavo Alfaro, who coached Ecuador at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

This is not a new phenomenon in South America and certainly not for the continent’s most prestigious international competition. At the 2015 Copa America, all four semi-finalists (Argentina, Chile, Peru and Paraguay) were coached by Argentine managers. The 2019 edition of the tournament featured three Argentine managers in the semi-finals.

Managers from Argentina have always been highly sought after, both at national and international level. But why? In South America, it’s a debate that touches on everything from football heritage to inferiority complexes and fanatical patriotism.

Argentina is the country of Alfredo Di Stefano, Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi. Greatness in football is a virtue that Argentinians have come to expect. Their most successful managers at both club and international level are often revered for their philosophical approach to football.

The late Cesar Luis Menotti is considered Argentina’s greatest football mind. Menotti, who died in May aged 85, coached Argentina to the World Cup title in 1978. Highlights of his career included coaching Argentina from 1974 to 1983 and spells at Barcelona, ​​Boca Juniors and River Plate. Until his death, Menotti was director of football for the Argentine Football Association (AFA).

The chain-smoking tactical guru spoke as eloquently as an award-winning novelist. Menotti’s wisdom helped position Argentine football, and particularly the national team, as a conceptual idea rather than a magnet for passionate fandom.

Menotti (right) managed Maradona with Argentina and then with Barcelona (Rene Jean/AFP via Getty Images)

“The national team is a very serious place to be,” Menotti said in 2019 after accepting the AFA appointment. “Every ball kicked by a player creates a cultural event. We’re going to support that cultural growth, because it’s something that clubs can’t do. Only the Argentina national team can do that.”

Menotti also once claimed that a double pivot in midfield was ‘a lie’.

“The ball cannot be recovered by the accumulation of forces, but rather by the recovery of space. That’s how (Johan) Cruyff’s Holland did it,” Menotti said.

The ability to express football ideas as if you were a professor of higher university education is synonymous with many former and current coaches from Argentina. Managers from Argentina are often seen as both tacticians and capable leaders. That assumption could lead to nationalist debates across South America.

When Colombia hired current manager Lorenzo, a former Argentine national team defender, Colombians joked on social media that an Argentine passport was a requirement for the job. Lorenzo replaced Colombian Reinaldo Rueda, a highly regarded coach in South America.

To make matters even more controversialLorenzo is the second Argentine manager to lead Colombia in recent years after Jose Pekerman. who coached Colombia from 2014 to 2018.

“I was surprised by Lorenzo’s appointment,” former Colombia and Costa Rica coach Jorge Luis Pinto said in 2022. “He does not have the status to lead the Colombian national team.”

Efraín Pachón is the former president of Bogota-based club Independiente Santa Fe. When Lorenzo was hired, Pachón labeled the decision “ridiculous and embarrassing.”

“We have (Colombian) coaches who have performed at World Cup tournaments and enriched other national teams,” Pachón said. “It would have been a smart decision to hire every (Colombian) coach who has been to a World Cup and put together a staff that way.”

It’s clear that Pachón let his pride get the better of him. Lorenzo turns out to be a competent national coach. Colombia reaches the 2024 Copa América after a 19-match unbeaten streak under Argentina.

Not everyone was impressed Nestor Lorenzo gets the job in Colombia (Sebastian Barros/Getty Images)

Coupled with their perceived tactical acumen, Argentine coaches are also known and respected for their ability to adapt to the various cultural idiosyncrasies of South American football. Domestic leagues across the region are littered with Argentine managers. The same can be said for players of Argentinian descent. They often leave their country’s first division to join some of South America’s best clubs.

Only arch-rivals and five-time world champions Brazil can confidently look down on the Albiceleste in a battle of egos. Brazilian clubs dominate in South America, but the 2022 World Cup title has cemented Argentina’s position as the continent’s best national team. But even in Brazil, where language can be an initial obstacle, some Argentine coaches have had success.

Wages are much better in Brazil, but it is a trend that has reinforced the idea that Argentina produces the best managers in South America. Coaches Gabriel Milito (Clube Atletico Mineiro), Ramon Díaz (Vasco da Gama), Eduardo Coudet (Internacional, Nicolas Larcamon (Cruzeiro) and Juan Pablo Vojvoda (Fortaleza) joined more than 40 Argentine players who will be in Brazi’s top flight in 2024 on the other hand, you rarely see Brazilian players in the Argentine league, let alone coaches. Take for example Boca Juniors, the Buenos Aires-based super club has hired only two Brazilian coaches and a total of nine foreign coaches. .born managers.

There is also the Scaloni effect. The former interim manager proved to the world that inexperience is not always a determining factor for success. Scaloni, 46, has lifted the 2022 World Cup trophy despite never being a head coach at senior level. Scaloni is now regarded as one of the sport’s most important man managers and is chasing his fourth title with Argentina this summer (after the 2021 Copa America, the 2022 CONMEBOL-UEFA Cup of Champions and the 2022 World Cup).

The 2024 Copa América will once again be a showcase for Argentine managers on the international stage, proving that their influence in South America is not a trend, but rather a ubiquitous reality. Barring a complete collapse of the CONMEBOL squads, it is more than likely that an Argentinian will coach at least one team in the finals.