Leaving a legacy

When I made the decision to come to Venezuela, many friends told me I was crazy to change Argentina for a national team that is historically at the bottom of Conmebol.

I had just come from coaching the Argentina Under-23 team at the Tokyo Olympics, and I still had a contract for another year and a half with the Argentinean Football Association (AFA). I had been very comfortable there.

But sometimes you have to take on challenges, and change can make us strong. Besides, wherever I am, I always like to leave a legacy. That has influenced many of the decisions I have taken in my career.

Back when I was still a player at Argentinos Juniors, I liked to be curious. I would ask questions, and take notes on the training sessions I was doing. I had a little notebook in which I always wrote down, in my own way, what we were doing. And if I had any doubts, I would go the next day and respectfully ask the coach about them. When I started doing that, it was like I had awakened in me the idea that one day I would be a coach.

The role I had as a player also helped. I made my debut as a right midfielder – a number eight – then I played all positions in the middle. In the last years of my career I was a full-back and even a centre-back. It was a good thing to be able to play in different positions.

When I started coaching, I was clear that I wanted to start at youth level, with 13-year-olds, and then with continuity through to the Under-20s. Why? It seemed to me that it would be very useful as experience for the future. You have to start at the grassroots.

"it was an experience to look for players in the armenian diaspora. i lived there for nine months, and loved it"

In 2004, San Lorenzo de Almagro opened the doors for me to coach in their lower divisions. I spent four years there; it is a period I remember with much gratitude.

In 2008 I returned to Argentinos Juniors, a club I love very much. I became involved in overseeing the academy; first for three years with the youth teams and then, until 2016, the Under-20s. That same year, the AFA started looking for someone to take charge of the youth teams. For the Under-20s they chose Claudio Ubeda. They added me to that project, because of all the experience I had at youth level.

With Claudio we started preparing to play in the South American Youth Championship in Ecuador, then we qualified for the Under-20 World Cup in South Korea. We almost became a family with the national team. Then Jorge Sampaoli and Sebastián Beccacece arrived, and took over the senior and Under-20 teams until the end of 2018.

While waiting for a job, the Football Federation of Armenia came along. It was not only a change, but a huge leap personally. They invited me over for a week, to see all the facilities, the national team, the methodology, and how they worked. They wanted me to start making a change to Armenia’s youth teams.

I was the co-ordinator of the Under-20, Under-17 and Under-15 teams, as well as the Under-20 coach, and I liked it a lot. Sometimes you weigh up a lot of things – what is good and what is bad. In Armenia, as I always try to do, I thought I would leave a legacy.

I spent nine months there, living on the premises. I loved it. It was an experience to start putting together competitive national teams, and to look for players in the Armenian diaspora who I could also recommend for the senior national team. The truth is that it was a nice year in a country that, although it doesn’t have the football tradition of other UEFA members, gave me a good chance. I had the support of my family, and it only didn’t last longer because, after nine months, the possibility of returning to Argentina came up.

"i had the chance to select álvarez, mac allister, fernández. we didn't choose badly, did we?"

The AFA offered me the chance to become head coach of the Under-20 and Under-23 teams, from the end of 2018 until 2022. It was a dream opportunity, but then everything we know happened – a year without competition because of the pandemic. Despite that, they were very good years. In fact, I divide that stage into two: the results and the process.

When you manage a national team, results will always be a part of it. You cannot avoid it. But there also has to be a process. And there can be processes, cycles, that end up being cut short by a specific defeat.

That is why I insist they were good years. When you have an Under-23 or Under-20 team, you work beyond the results of each tournament. You have to work for the senior national team and constantly be looking for talent. Building and strengthening, giving young players as many games as possible so that, when it’s their turn to play for the seniors, they are as prepared as they can be.

We did well at the Under-20 South American Championship and Pan American Games in 2019, and won gold at the 2020 Conmebol Pre-Olympic Tournament. The thorn in our side was the Olympic Games in Tokyo, where we exited after the group stage.

But I like to look at the big picture. In the process, I had the chance to select Julián Álvarez, Alexis Mac Allister, Nicolás González and Enzo Fernández. They all went on to be world champions. Also Gonzalo Montiel, Cristian ‘Cuti’ Romero, Lisandro Martínez and Nahuel Molina. All four of them were with me at one time or another. And Exequiel Palacio and Lautaro Martínez. We didn’t choose badly, did we?

You can see that the process was good, beyond the results achieved. So, personally, the work across those four years was very good. We all wanted the title, which would have been the icing on the cake, but it didn’t happen. Seeing many of those players grow up has been a joy, though, because I know how hard they have fought.

"to be honest, i had little trouble making the decision to go to venezuela"

I had just come back from the Tokyo Olympics and had another 18 months on my contract with the AFA. That was when the option arose to join José Pekerman as part of his coaching staff with Venezuela.

Sometimes in football we have to make decisions, and sometimes those decisions have to be well thought out. But I immediately liked the idea a lot. Maybe because, at that time, I had already experienced several competitions with Argentina. You always get that itch to keep learning.

To be honest, I had little trouble making the decision to go to Venezuela. First, because I knew that I was going to a special country in football terms. Venezuela is the only Conmebol team never to have qualified for a senior World Cup, but there was a feeling of: “There is work to do, but the talent to do it.”

Nothing is certain in football but, as always, I wanted to make a mark on both the senior and youth teams.

That is why I asked the president of the Venezuelan Football Federation, Jorge Giménez, to let me take charge of the youth side as well. It is something I’m passionate about.

Our first competition was the Maurice Revello Tournament, formerly known as the Toulon Tournament. Venezuela went there for the first time and we reached the final against France. We were winning, but they came back at the end. I don’t know if Venezuela should have won that final, but I remember telling the boys that they gave everything and did what they had to do to win it. That is when I thought this could kickstart what we wanted to achieve; that here we had an interesting group of  young players.

"the game starts before the referee blows his whistle. if you go in asleep, you pay for it"

Then came the opportunity to take on the senior national team and, to be honest, it was a strange feeling. First, because of José's departure at the time – he was the person who had initiated the whole project. Afterwards, the president of the federation offered me the chance to continue with the process. Naturally, I thought about it.

One thing that was clear to me was that I was already prepared for a change of this magnitude. When you coach an Under-23 team, as I had done with Argentina at the Olympics, you train with elite players from the best teams in the world.

So the offer to be the head coach of Venezuela came to me at a time when I felt ready. I’m at a good age, with a lot of desire, a great working group, a great group of players and, above all, with a great bunch of human beings.

When the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup began, I was asked which rivals would be competing for the spots with Venezuela. But I don’t look at rivals; I look at us. We have to start from there, to know how we are going to compete and what we want for Venezuela.

Let me give you an example. Venezuela was a team that had conceded many key goals at crucial moments – in the first five minutes or the last 10 minutes of a half.

This is a fact that we have verified with data, and worked on together with the coaching staff. We have shown it to the players in many matches, not just the ones they have played. Previous teams failed in what I call ‘the fatal minutes’, because of an initial or final lack of concentration due to rest, tiredness or lack of attention. We continue to work on this, including through specialist coaching.

I always tell the players that the match starts when you arrive, when we are getting changed. That is when the game starts, not when the referee blows the whistle. When you go in asleep, you pay for it. We have to work a lot on the emotional side of things, on the mental side.

That is why I said that, for Venezuela, their first opponent is Venezuela themselves. We are going in with humility, knowing who we are, but we are not afraid of anyone.

Looking to the future, all we can think about is working and visualising the dream we all have: to see Venezuela competing at a World Cup. We have a lot to do, and I have a lot to learn in order to become a better coach. But it’s an important dream.