One stays, one goes
Lionel Scaloni had good news to share on Thursday. He had a goodbye to announce too.
On the same evening Argentina confirmed his new contract through the 2030 World Cup, Scaloni revealed that Walter Samuel is leaving his staff. The former centre back, now 48, wants to run his own team. According to L’Équipe, his target is a club job, and ideally a European one from 2027.
That ends an eight-year partnership. Samuel has been at Scaloni’s side since the start of the project in 2018, through the Copa América wins, the 2022 World Cup title in Qatar and this summer’s run to another World Cup final.
no renewal
Free for 2 weeks.
No replacement for now
Scaloni isn’t rushing to fill the gap. He said he won’t appoint a new assistant in the immediate future, which suggests the rest of the backroom team, Pablo Aimar included, will simply absorb the work for the time being.
For Samuel, the jump makes sense. As a player he was one of the toughest defenders of his generation, a key part of the Inter side that won the treble in 2010. Eight years of international football taught him how to prepare a group in short bursts. Daily club work is a different job, and he clearly wants to find out whether he can do it.
Plenty of European clubs will be watching his first move.
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