La Albiceleste and football, like a nationwide blanket of WIFI, through narrow streets and open parks, permeate every nook and corner of Argentinian life. The Sky Blue and White jersey brings boundless pride, joy, mania, passion, and even anger into the everyday existence of Argentinians, while on extraordinary days like Sunday when Messi and his muchachos made Argentina campeóns del mundo for the third time, you can only look at the visuals of the celebration in Buenos Aires to get a sense of the euphoria.
The streets are filled and it’s crazy out there 🥳#Messi #Argentina #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/Z987MoD6po
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But the national team is also, as it has always been, a matter of grave severity. There are endless debates about the appropriate playing styles, team selections, and whatever else is discernable, decidable, and arguable from the armchair.
The defining duality in Argentinan football has been Menottisme v Bilardisme, football philosophies named after previous World Cup-winning managers, César Luis Menotti and Carlos Bilardo. The former loved the romantic ideal of beautiful, innovative football, the latter is associated with antifútbol where the ends, and only ends, are what hold substance.
But the term that has snatched and consumed the imagination of Argentina, and has now hit the roof of football pop culture, is La Scaloneta, derived from the surname of Lionel Scaloni, Argentina’s golden son who broke the 36-year curse and started a countrywide tango party.
Unlike Menottisme or Bilardisme, the La Scaloneta bandwagon didn’t originate from the pages of broadsheets or magazines such as El Gráfico, rather keeping with our times, its source was a meme of Scaloni driving a camioneta – van – with his players sitting behind, which went viral after Argentina beat Ecuador in Copa América quarterfinal in 2021.
Lionel Scaloni’s Argentina analysis
More than any overarching tactical ideology, it’s in the simplicity and innocence of Scaloni’s calming words: “The sun will come up tomorrow” where the magic of La Scaloneta lies.
At a time when the football-devout land of Argentina, where footballers are not players but deities, was saddled with the sorrow and suffering of losing five finals since 1993, including the World Cup final in 2014, La Albiceleste needed someone who could reinstate the beautifully powerful emotion that is hope, in their captain, in their…
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