No “I” in Qatar
Argentina were one lonely walk away from World Cup glory. Millions stood still as the Albiceleste’s fourth representative approached the net, one spot kick away from ending the 36 year long wait for the sports’ biggest prize. Conventional knowledge has it that this is the moment for a talisman, a star. Your biggest player stepping up when needed most. And yet Argentina’s undisputed star, Lionel Messi, had already played his part, placing his country’s first penalty just shy of the bottom left corner with impossible calm. No, the moment was Gonzalo Montiel’s, a name that with all due respect, was not exactly familiar to the more casual fan. The French relied on takers playing for juggernauts such as PSG, Bayern Munich, and Real Madrid. And yet it was a right-back from humble Sevilla, who had been playing in his native Argentina just over a year prior, that had the final say in proceedings.
Argentina’s historic squad was filled to a brim with unlikely heroes such as Montiel. Alexis Mac Allister, from mid-table Brighton. Emiliano Martinez, from lower-caliber mid-table Aston Villa. Enzo Fernandez, a young star for Portuguese elite, but European proletariat Benfica. Meanwhile, fellow finalists France had a squad two-deep at every position with players hailing from biggest clubs in Europe. Pre-tournament powerhouses Brazil were stacked with a dizzying amount of high-potential young players that also enjoyed the highest levels of domestic soccer weekly. Even England had a fine core of individual talents, nearly all belonging to some version of the Premier League “Big 6”. Ignoring the top 5 players, one could argue that on paper, Argentina had one of the weakest squads out of the traditional favorites. And yet it was this band of rugged South Americans that dominated all but one and a half games they played, and prevailed among all.
Sports have a love for intangibles. “Mentality”. “Leadership”. And chief among these is “teamwork”. It is the core concept of the games we play as children and a select few are paid to play as adults, the idea that the collective is always better than the individual. Stars can and will emerge, but they are nothing if they cannot collaborate and lift others up with them. And yet as a sport so clearly impacted by individual players, teamwork’s relevancy comes into question more often in soccer than other games. While Cristiano Ronaldo is not commonly known for his fraternal spirit (in part due to media hyperbole, but with a grain of truth behind it all), it is difficult to say that the 800 plus goals that he has scored throughout his career has been a detriment to anyone. In my own playing days I recall screaming at an extremely skilled teammate to pass the ball to my wide-open self, being frustrated when he instead chose to take the opponents on himself, and being emphatically shut up as he beat them all and lashed a furious shot into the top corner. Soccer can fall into a name game at times, better players tend to translate into more wins, and while seemingly innocuous it turns into a lament in the modern age of superclubs and the increased ease of poaching from minnows.
The dollar, euro, and pound have always had a more direct impact on the club game than the international one. Brazil cannot buy a new right back if none appear out of the favelas, and this has long been the great equalizer of the international game. And yet money’s overarching hand still affects this seemingly purer variation of the sport, as increased funding and infrastructure means better training facilities, better player development, and in the increasing case of dual-national recruitment, better pull. It’s why a gulf still exists in the international game, why the Dominican Republic will never compete with the United States, why Morocco’s inspirational underdog story was always an underdog story. Teamwork is nice and cute, but having a striker like Kylian Mbappe makes victory inevitable. Right?
And yet it is Argentina that have contradicted this. Yes they have one of the greatest, if not the greatest, player of all time in Lionel Messi, but as previous versions of Argentina have shown he could never do it alone. No, it took a rag-tag, cohesive group of battle-hardened warriors to push him to this peak. In an era where FIFA ratings and Transfermarkt valuations are more often being considered a metric for team strength, it is in these intangibles that we find comfort. Argentina were by no means underdogs, but they are a microcosm of that elusive word, “teamwork”. They’ve always had the individual talent in Messi and supporting cast like Sergio Agüero, Javier Mascherano, and Gonzalo Higuain, but it took not a team full of superstars like their competitors, but a team full of individuals who were willing to give it all for the badge. Maybe Argentina aren’t the greatest example, with Manchester City, PSG, and Juventus players still in their ranks, but when Guido Rodriguez reaches the same pinnacle as Julian Alvarez, it’s hard not to be romantic.
