Against all odds, Lionel Messi has one last shot at World Cup glory with Argentina

Argentina went to Russia in 2018 with a sense it was now or never. They had lost in the final of the previous World Cup. A great generation of attacking talent was ageing. Lionel Messi was 31 and two years earlier had flirted with international retirement after a second successive Copa América final defeat to Chile. And at last the Argentinian Football Association had managed to appoint, in Jorge Sampaoli, a dynamic and progressive coach who promised to restore the days of Bielsista optimism.

Messi scored one brilliant goal, against Nigeria and there was a spirited exit against France in the last 16, but the last World Cup was a huge disappointment. There was a drab draw against Iceland and an embarrassingly comprehensive defeat to Croatia.

Sampaoli, meanwhile, seemed overwhelmed by the job, grey-faced and sweating as he failed to overcome the basic incompatibility of Argentina’s fleet of lumbering defenders with his demand for a hard press and a high line.

It was clear he had to go, but the AFA, sclerotic and riven by factional infighting, was as good as broke even before paying off his contract. When Lionel Scaloni, the former West Ham full-back, was appointed to replace him, initially as a caretaker, his greatest qualification was that, having already been employed as one of Sampaoli’s assistants, he was cheap.

Argentina slipped into pessimism: the production line that had brought five Under-20 World Cups between 1995 and 2007 was broken and Messi’s powers seemed to be waning.

Sometimes, though, things just work out. Last year, Argentina beat Brazil at the Maracanã to win the Copa América. It was an extra tournament added to the schedule to raise funds for impoverished federations under the guise of rejigging the