BUENOS AIRES (AP) \u2014 From a farewell that seemed all but certain to a situation where the possibility of continuing remains open.<\/p>\n
Lionel Scaloni, who hinted his tenure as Argentina coach was over following the loss in the World Cup final, said Thursday he is willing to negotiate an extension of his contract, which expires in December.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will talk \u2014 there is every willingness to sit down,\u201d Scaloni told reporters after a training session at the national team complex in Ezeiza, ahead of friendlies against Bolivia, Burkina Faso, and Benin.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is certainly a desire to be here, but there are a lot of aspects we need to discuss with the president\u201d of the Argentine Football Association, Claudio Tapia.<\/p>\n
Scaloni\u2019s remarks came after several Argentine national team players publicly called for him to stay, including the new captain, Cristian Romero, who is taking over the armband following the international retirement of Lionel Messi.<\/p>\n
Scaloni is the architect of the most successful era in Argentine history, featuring a World Cup title (2022) and two Copa Am\u00e9rica victories (2021 and 2024)<\/p>\n
He indicated he would speak with Tapia in the coming days.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a dream come true, but that doesn\u2019t mean I have to cling to the job forever. There are certain conditions we need to discuss with the president, and we\u2019ll see if we can reach an agreement,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
When asked whether the renewal depended on financial or sporting factors, the coach replied, \u201cA bit of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Argentina will face Bolivia on Sept. 30 at the Mario Alberto Kempes Stadium in C\u00f3rdoba province and will then take on Burkina Faso and Benin on Oct. 3 and 6, respectively, at the Monumental Stadium in Buenos Aires.<\/p>\n
Messi\u2019s farewell<\/p>\n
The friendly against Benin will serve as the occasion for the 39-year-old Messi to appear for his final match in his national team\u2019s jersey, following his announcement in late August that he was ending his international career.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, getting to coach him was the ultimate experience. It was a dream. I told him so, and I\u2019ll say it for the rest of my life. There will never be anyone like him,\u201d Scaloni said. \u201cIt\u2019s very rare for a player like that to come along \u2014not just because of what he does on the pitch, but because of everything he conveys off it. Let\u2019s enjoy this.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the last World Cup \u2014 the sixth of his career \u2014 Messi played all eight matches and scored eight goals. He concluded his national team career as its all-time leading scorer with 125 goals, 21 of which came in World Cups.<\/p>\n
Messi, who holds the record with eight Ballon d\u2019Or awards, is nominated for the prize to be presented on Oct. 26.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the World Cup he just played, there isn\u2019t much more to add,\u201d Scaloni said. \u201dIf the award is for the best player, there\u2019s no doubt. It\u2019s already spoken for; the statistics prove it. As long as he\u2019s on a football pitch, it\u2019s hard to argue that he doesn\u2019t deserve it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The future<\/p>\n
Scaloni used the squad selection for the upcoming friendlies to begin the transition following the retirements of Messi, defender Nicol\u00e1s Otamendi, and other players.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese matches are an opportunity for the young players to make their mark. If these youngsters are here, it\u2019s because they deserve it. I hope they make the most of it,\u201d the coach said.<\/p>\n
The new call-ups include defenders Tom\u00e1s Palacios (Estudiantes), Rom\u00e1n Vega (Zenit), and Valent\u00edn G\u00f3mez (Betis); midfielders Tob\u00edas Andrada (River Plate), Ezequiel Fern\u00e1ndez (Bayer Leverkusen), and Santiago Sim\u00f3n (Toluca, Mexico); and winger Leonel Flores (Boca Juniors).<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
See AP\u2019s full soccer coverage here <\/p>\n
D\u00e9bora Rey (), The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUENOS AIRES (AP) \u2014 From a farewell that seemed all but certain to a situation where the possibility…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":908280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-908279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=908279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/908280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=908279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=908279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=908279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}