Argentina’s World Cup-winning coach Lionel Scaloni has signed a new contract until the 2026 World Cup, the Argentine Football Federation announced on Monday.
Scaloni, who took over the role in 2018 and guided Lionel Messi’s team to glory in Qatar in December, agreed the new deal while attending the FIFA Best Awards in Paris.
Argentine football chiefs “Claudio Tapia and Lionel Scaloni met to finalize the extension of their contracts until 2026,” a statement from the federation read under “continuity assurances”.
Read also: Lionel Messi beats Embappé, wins ‘Best FIFA Player of 2022’
Scaloni, 44, has guided Argentina to the Copa America title in 2021 – the Albiceleste’s first international trophy since 1993.
He then masterminded the South Americans’ third World Cup title with a penalty shoot-out victory over France in the final in Doha.
He took over as coach from Jorge Sampaoli following their last-16 exit at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, initially on an interim basis before making the job his own.
At the time, not everyone welcomed Scaloni’s arrival at the helm of the national team.
The late Diego Maradona, himself a former Argentina manager, offered a particularly weak assessment, praising Scaloni’s character but telling Clarin newspaper: “He isn’t even capable of directing traffic.”
Scaloni had no previous experience as head coach, and was only expected to be in charge for two months while the federation searched for Sampaoli’s successor.
He inherited a squad scarred by a series of near misses – a 2014 World Cup final defeat followed by back-to-back Copa America final defeats to Chile on penalties in 2015 and 2016.
His vision for the team influenced, among others, Messi, who had become disillusioned with international football after being knocked out at the 2018 World Cup.
Scaloni led Argentina to a 36-match unbeaten run at last year’s World Cup, the highlight of which was a 2021 Copa America win in Brazil that ended a 28-year trophy drought.
Then in Qatar, after an opening defeat to Saudi Arabia, they produced a trophy-winning run to complete the Copa América and World Cup double.
Under Scaloni, Argentina will defend its world title in 2026 at the World Cup jointly hosted by Mexico, the United States and Canada.
Scaloni joins Real Madrid’s Carlo Ancelotti and Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola in the running for the FIFA best coach award, which will be announced in Paris on Monday.
The text of this story is published from a wire agency feed without any modification. Only the headline has been changed.
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