Life after Messi: What Argentina can learn from post-Maradona era

Some players do more than simply represent a national team: they come to define it. Just as Pele became synonymous with Brazil, Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi came to embody Argentina.

When a player of that stature hangs up his boots, it marks more than the end of a career. It raises a question that can linger for years: what comes next? After Pele’s final FIFA World Cup triumph in 1970, it took the Selecao 24 years to reclaim the crown. La Albiceleste also endured a similarly long wait after Maradona’s heyday before they lifted the trophy again at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. Now, with Messi having announced his retirement from international football, that same uncertainty looms once more.

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Maradona’s international swansong came in typically captivating fashion in a Group D clash against Nigeria at the FIFA World Cup 1994. With their talisman back in the fold, Alfio Basile’s side followed up a 4-0 demolition of Greece with a 2-1 victory over the Super Eagles, establishing themselves as one of the tournament’s leading contenders.

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Ahead of the global extravaganza, Maradona had declared, “I need Argentina to need me”. Despite being without a club and out of professional football at the time, he duly answered Basile’s call following the crushing 5-0 defeat to Colombia in the South American qualifiers. Up to that point, the squad had shown considerable promise, with a crop of emerging talents such as Leo Rodríguez, Diego Simeone, Fernando Redondo, Claudio Caniggia and Gabriel Batistuta. Built around that core, La Albiceleste had already captured two CONMEBOL Copa America titles in 1991 and 1993.

However, the young side looked flat and short of inspiration in World Cup qualifying. Maradona pulled on the No10 shirt once more, helping them to secure a place in the tournament courtesy of a 2-1 aggregate win in the play-off against Australia. Just 40 days ahead of the showpiece event, he retreated to La Pampa to train with his long-time fitness coach, Fernando Signorini.

Yet when the tournament finally arrived, his resurgence was abruptly cut short when he tested positive for a banned substance. LaAlbiceleste – still reeling from the news – were knocked out by Romania in the round of 16. This proved to be Maradona’s final farewell.

The arrival of Daniel Passarella in the Argentina dugout effectively brought the curtain down on El Diez’s international career, given that the pair shared a difficult relationship. Yet the transition away from Maradona would prove far from straightforward.

Ariel Ortega, the River Plate star who had been Maradona’s room-mate during Argentina’s preparations for the 1994 spectacle, inherited the considerable burden of the number 10 shirt. However, his FIFA World Cup 1998 campaign came to be defined by a single moment of indiscipline in a quarter-final clash against the Netherlands. Ortega was sent off after headbutting Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar and Argentina went on to suffer a 2-1 defeat, bringing their challenge to a close.

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Ortega aside, Argentina’s approach had shifted towards a more collective model that was less reliant on any one player. In keeping with the country’s footballing pedigree, there was no shortage of quality, but they lacked an individual talent capable of rescuing the team at crucial moments – a true icon.

But this was about more than just a shirt number, or even the absence of a creative focal point. In the years after Maradona – and before Messi – Argentina lacked a longstanding leader capable of imposing himself both in the dressing room and out on the pitch. Instead, the captain’s armband was passed from one player to another. In 1998, Passarella gave Simeone the nod. Juan Sebastian Veron skippered the side for two matches at FIFA’s flagship men’s tournament in 2002, with Batistuta leading the side out for their final outing in Japan. Then, in 2006, Jose Pekerman entrusted Juan Pablo Sorin with the responsibility, before Javier Mascherano assumed the mantle in 2010.

Ortega returned four years later, this time under Marcelo Bielsa and as part of a team unmistakably shaped by the coach’s philosophy. Argentina looked to progress the ball rapidly, attack directly, stretch opponents with width and press relentlessly to regain possession. Although he wore the No10 shirt, El Burrito was no longer operating as the archetypal Argentina attacking midfielder, instead being deployed more like a wide forward, with significant defensive responsibilities that included tracking the opposing full-back. Ortega never quite found his rhythm, and the team failed to progress beyond the group stage.

The post-Maradona era unfolded against a backdrop of coaching changes from one World Cup cycle to the next, with stewardship of the national team passing from Passarella, to Bielsa and then to Pekerman. By 2006, the latter, who was the architect of Argentina’s golden generation at youth level, was overseeing the senior side’s World Cup campaign on German soil. His preferred No10 was Juan Roman Riquelme, one of the standout stars of Argentina’s FIFA U-20 World Cup triumph in 1997. Meanwhile, a young Messi – sporting the No19 – was just beginning to show the world glimmers of the stardust that would soon follow.

The team played in a more traditional style, built around possession and with the No10 operating as a classic playmaker, dictating the tempo of the game. Although they were knocked out at the quarter-final stage, they are remembered as one of the tournament’s most attractive and accomplished sides.

In 2010, Argentina’s set-up underwent a seismic shift. Maradona was now in charge, while Messi had inherited his iconic shirt number. After laying the foundations for an extraordinary career at Barcelona, the diminutive magician arrived in South Africa carrying an increasingly familiar burden: the expectation that he should reproduce for Argentina what he was already achieving so spectacularly at club level.

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That World Cup ultimately ended in disappointment, with Argentina bowing out after a quarter-final defeat to Germany. With the benefit of hindsight, however, South Africa 2010 can be seen in a different light: it marked the point at which the Messi era truly began to take shape.

After Maradona, Argentina continued to unearth top players and build memorable teams. Yet, for years, they kept searching for the figure capable of filling the symbolic void he had left behind.

Now, a new chapter is beginning. Argentina’s tradition of producing exceptional footballers remains undiminished, but La Albiceleste are once again facing a recognisable challenge: adapting to life without a No10 who was once thought to be irreplaceable.

The post-Maradona years offer a useful blueprint. Argentina may never find another Messi, but history suggests they can learn to evolve without their main man and perhaps even reinvent themselves in the process.