BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, May 29 (V7N )— Argentina are contenders to defend their World Cup title but coach Lionel Scaloni risks undermining their chances if he leans too heavily on the players who won four years ago, Argentine great Daniel Bertoni told AFP.

Argentina will again be led by Lionel Messi, with 16 other members of the 2022 squad named for the tournament co-hosted by the US, Mexico, and Canada.

“I think Argentina is a candidate, given our record of reaching the final six times and winning three of them,” said 71-year-old Bertoni.

“But if we believe we will be champions again due to our name, and on what we have accomplished, that is a mistake.

“The thing that can really kill Argentina, is the coach relying too much on the players who won them the crown four years ago.”

Bertoni, who scored in Argentina’s 3-1 win over the Netherlands in the 1978 World Cup final and was part of the squad that exited in the second round in 1982, also raised concerns about Messi’s fitness.

Messi has been named captain with the expectation he will recover from a hamstring issue that led him to ask to leave the pitch last Sunday during Inter Miami’s MLS match against Philadelphia.

“He is still a pivotal player,” Bertoni said. “But he is close to 40 years old — he will be 39 on June 24 — and you have to see how he is physically when he turns up.

“He is no longer playing at the top level club-wise and also he will miss Angel Di Maria, who after Messi, was crucial at the 2022 World Cup.”

‘Passage of time’

Bertoni, who played in Europe for clubs including Sevilla and Napoli after the 1978 triumph, said defending the title brings its own pressure, as he learned in 1982.

“It is a huge pressure,” he said. “Everything depends on the state of the squad, and the ability of the coach to bring together two realities: to impress on the players they are world champions, but that it is imperative they go out there and put up a serious defence of it.

“At the 1982 World Cup we thought because we were world champions we could win it again with Diego Maradona and other new players. However, it is always tough, everyone wants to win it.”

The 1978 victory came under the rule of military dictator General Jorge Videla, who had seized power from Eva Peron in 1976. The junta’s human rights abuses — including torture and disappearances of political prisoners — tarnished the win for some.

There have been concerns raised about this year’s edition due to policies of the Trump administration.

Bertoni said players focus on the pitch, just as he and his teammates did in 1978. 

“At the time we did not really know what was going on in the country,” he said. “We knew there was a military government that was detrimental to the nation, that a kind of guerrilla war was going on, but we did not know about the disappeared, we learned about that later with the passage of time.

“I think players go to a World Cup to play, and to show what they know how to do. We are athletes, and in that capacity we are only responsible for what we do on the pitch.”

END/WSP/RH