Scaloni, the best FIFA coach of the year

Argentinian Lionel Scaloni, world champion with his homeland, was chosen as the best coach of the year at the FIFA The Best awards this Monday, ahead of Italian Carlo Ancelotti from Real Madrid and Spanish Pep Guardiola from Manchester City.

Scaloni, 44, capped off a stellar job in Qatar that saw him work with the Albiceleste, with whom he has lost just one of his last 43 games in charge.

Despite his short experience on the bench, the Rosario man has recaptured team spirit in Argentina and managed to harness the talent of his stars, starting with his countryman Leo Messi.

Renewal

Lionel Scaloni will continue to lead the Argentine team for at least another four years. The Argentine Football Association (AFA) announced on its Twitter account on Monday the renewal of Pujat as coach until 2026, meaning he will lead the Albiceleste in the 2024 Copa América and the World Cup, which will be played at United. United States, Mexico and Canada two years later.

Scaloni returned the Argentine team to football’s prime last December, when the team led by Leo Messi won the World Cup in Qatar after defeating France in the final played at the Lusail Stadium. It was the third star sewn on the chest by the team that was already declared world champion as host in 1978, with César Luis Menotti on the bench and Mario Alberto Kempes as the main reference on the field, and which reigned again eight years later at the World Cup held in Mexico, then with Carlos Salvador Bilardo as strategist and Diego Armando Maradona as leader.

From that moment began a long journey through the desert that lasted 38 years and that Scaloni ended with the cup that Messi raised in the capital of Qatar, to the delirium of a country where football is a real religion.

The former footballer of Deportivo from La Coruña, Racing from Santander and Mallorca, among other teams, took over the leadership of Argentina four years earlier, after the debacle at the World Cup in Russia and as a temporary act, but he managed to revive the Albiceleste and return it to the Olympus of the king of sports through a calm a management that has calmed down a dressing room that has been under fire as a result of a long list of woes that have seen Messi even declare that he will no longer defend the Albiceleste.

Friendly meetings in March Scaloni, who once shared a dressing room with the genius from Rosario, created a support group without edges in the service of the goal: to provide Messi with the only title missing from his file and allow him to sit to the right of Diego. With a group of workers dedicated to the sacred task of enthroning the star of Rosario and the ’10’ offering flashes of brilliance, Argentina have once again placed themselves at the epicenter of the football planet in Qatar, barely a year after returning to touch the metal with the Copa América victory, another great success that shines in a meteoric career as a horse trainer at the age of 44.

Despite the fact that winning the trophy in Qatar put Scaloni on the radar of several teams, his continuity at the helm of the Albiceleste was a priority for the AFA, culminating in talks with coach Pujata in the hours before The Best Awards were delivered and with days left for the selection to deliver the list of invitees for the friendly matches that the Argentine team will play on March 23 and 28 against Panama and Suriname. Everything indicates that there will be no big news in the invitation and that they will retain the largest part of the block that was declared world champion in tasting

Weigman from the Netherlands wins her third The Best award for the best coach

The Dutch Sarina Wiegman, who led England to the Eurocup, was chosen as the best coach of the year for the third time this Monday at the FIFA The Best awards, ahead of the French Sonia Bonpastor from Lyon and the coach of Brazil, the Swedish Pia Sundhage.

Wiegman, 53, turned England into a winning machine with 22 wins and four draws in 26 games in charge, leading to his second European Cup, following the one he won with his homeland in 2017. In the EuroCup, England conceded just two goals, and scored 22.

Weigmar was already chosen by FIFA as the best coach in 2017 and 2020.

“I have loved football since I was born and I have seen how this sport has developed among women,” said the legendary coach, who asked that this development not allow “the right thing to be done.”

“We compete on the field, but outside we have to be a team, compete together so that we all progress,” said the English coach, who emphasized the good atmosphere at the last Eurocup.

They beat Bompastor, the league winner for their country and the Champions League, and Sundhage, the Copa América winner, in which the Brazilians scored 20 goals and conceded none.

Pole Macin Oleksy, FIFA’s Puskas Award for a goal on crutches

On Monday, the Polish Macin Oleksy received the Puskas award for the best goal of the year, which he scored in the match with crutches. It is the first time that FIFA marked a goal with crutches as the best of the year, an award for this footballer who lost his leg when a machine fell on him.

He scored the winning goal on November 6 in a domestic league match between Warta Poznań? and Stal Rzeszów.

Along with it, the goal of the Brazilian Richarlison in the match between Brazil and Serbia at the last World Cup on November 24, 2022 and the one signed by the Frenchman Dimitri Payet at Olympique de Marseille-Paok in the Conference League on April 7. in 2022

El Dibu Martínez, the best goalkeeper of the year at The Best of FIFA awards

Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano “Dibu” Martínez, world champion with his team, was chosen as the best goalkeeper of the year at the FIFA The Best awards this Monday, ahead of Belgian Thibaut Courtois from Real Madrid and Moroccan Yassine Bono from Sevilla.

“Dibu”, 30 years old and at Aston Villa from 2020, thus capitalized on Argentina’s victory at the World Cup in Qatar, which, unlike the Ballon d’Or, was included in the evaluation period. The France Football award five months ago went to Courtois.

The Argentinian goalkeeper finished the World Cup as the goalkeeper with the fewest goals and was key in the victory of “Albiceleste”, in the execution of penalties in the quarter-finals against the Netherlands and in the final against France, when he made a providential save in the last minute of extra time to the Frenchman Randal Kolo-Muani, who would leave the World Cup to the French.

In addition, Martínez is one of the bulwarks of the team, which with him under the bat experienced only one defeat in the last 26 games, the first in the World Cup against Saudi Arabia.

“It’s something very nice for my career. It is the pride of my country. Winning the World Cup after 36 years is a beautiful thing. People know how emotional it is to be Argentine,” he said while receiving the trophy. “We feel a connection with the country.”

But “Dibu” went further and, almost holding back tears of emotion, explained how his parents were his idols as a child because of the support they gave him and everything they did to make the family prosper. “Seeing my mom cleaning buildings for eight or nine hours, my dad working, they are my idols.”

Courtois (30), winner of the previous Ballon d’Or, lifted the Spanish league and the Champions League with Real Madrid, in the final of which he recorded an exceptional game against Liverpool at the Stade de France in Paris.

The Belgian, already chosen by FIFA as the best goalkeeper in 2018, wanted to become the first goalkeeper to win the award twice.

Bono, 31, was the most recognizable face of the Moroccan team that finished fourth in Qatar, the highest ever achieved by an African nation.

Prior to the semi-final loss to France, the Canadian-born goalkeeper had conceded just one goal, an own goal, in the competition.

In addition, the Moroccan finished as the goalkeeper with the fewest goals scored in the Spanish league in the 2021/2022 season.