Argentina's World Cup Journey: Balancing Experience and Youth

Argentina’s world champions stepped off the plane in Kansas City looking very familiar. That is both their greatest strength and the nagging doubt that hangs over Lionel Scaloni’s bid to go back-to-back on the biggest stage of all.

Seventeen of the 26 players in this squad were in Qatar three-and-a-half years ago. Ten of the 11 who started the final against France are still here; only Ángel Di María, now retired from international duty after bowing out as Player of the Match in the 2024 Copa America final, is missing.

Continuity has defined the Scaloni era. It has also carried Argentina to everything.

Sixteen members of this group were there for his first trophy, the 2021 Copa America. That level of stability is unmatched among the other giants. Brazil have retained just 11 players from their squad five years ago, three of them goalkeepers. England, from their Euro 2021 finalists, have kept only nine. Argentina, by contrast, have built a core that has lived, travelled and suffered together for half a decade.

They have the scars and the medals. The question now is whether they still have the legs.

A golden core, greying at the edges

Nine members of Scaloni’s squad are on the wrong side of 30. That list includes pillars such as Emiliano Martínez, Rodrigo De Paul and, of course, Lionel Messi, who will turn 39 during his record sixth World Cup.

At the other end, the future is under-represented. Just three players – Giuliano Simeone, Valentín Barco and Nico Paz – are under 25. The likes of Franco Mastantuono and Alejandro Garnacho have been left watching from home.

The average age nudges past 29. Age alone is not fatal in tournament football; experience wins tight games. But Argentina’s problem is not just the birth certificates. It is the mileage.

This is a group that has barely stopped. The Copa America in 2024, then for 11 of them a Club World Cup last summer. For some, three straight seasons have blurred into one long, relentless slog.

Since the start of the 2024-25 campaign, Enzo Fernández and Julián Álvarez have each played 121 games for club and country. One hundred and twenty-one. No wonder Atlético Madrid had to nurse Álvarez through the final weeks of their season as he battled an ankle issue. Fernández, still only 25 and in prime condition, has covered so much ground that fatigue feels less a possibility than an inevitability.

Alexis Mac Allister’s legs tell a similar story. The Liverpool midfielder did not go to the Club World Cup, yet he has still racked up 119 appearances in two seasons. His form has dipped sharply. He is expected to start Argentina’s opener against Algeria on Tuesday, but his Premier League performances over the last nine months suggest his margin for error is shrinking.

The criticism has not just come from analysts with spreadsheets. Speaking to TalkSport after laying into Mac Allister on social media during Liverpool’s defeat to Manchester City in February, former winger Jermaine Pennant said: “I was watching the game and I was frustrated and I tweeted… I was angry. It was constructive angry… I touched on that, ‘after your injury in pre-season, you’ve come back a shadow of what you are; it seems like your legs have gone’. In that [City] game, he was literally a bystander, he didn’t really get into it at all and that’s what I touched on, it was an observation.”

The observation echoes a wider concern: how long can Scaloni squeeze peak output from a core that has played almost without pause?

Scaloni’s loyalty, and the kids at the door

Unmoved by the noise, Scaloni is ready to double down on the group that has never let him down at a major tournament. Seven of the starters from Lusail are set to walk out at Arrowhead Stadium against Algeria. The number would likely be 10 had Álvarez, Nicolás Tagliafico and Nahuel Molina not arrived nursing minor injuries.

Cristian Romero, Nicolás Otamendi, Fernández, De Paul, Mac Allister and Messi are all expected to reprise their roles. Lautaro Martínez, Golden Boot winner at the 2024 Copa America, will lead the line in Álvarez’s absence.

This is a team that knows how to win. It also looks, in places, like a team that might need a jolt.

If Scaloni is to drag Argentina deep into another tournament, he may have to do the thing he dislikes most: take risks with youth.

That reluctance is already visible at left-back. With Tagliafico out, the obvious solution would be to throw in Barco. The left-sided Strasbourg player, widely tipped to join Chelsea this summer, has impressed in recent friendlies and scored in two of Argentina’s last three games, often operating slightly higher up the pitch. By trade he is a left-back, and at 21 his energy would inject much-needed thrust into an ageing side.

Instead, Scaloni is set to turn to Lisandro Martínez to deal with Riyad Mahrez down Algeria’s right. The Manchester United defender is more secure defensively than Barco, but as a natural centre-back he is unlikely to storm forward with the same ambition. The choice screams pragmatism – or caution, depending on your view.

On the opposite flank, Simeone is also expected to be used out of position at right-back. With Molina and Gonzalo Montiel still building back from injuries, Simeone will fill in until one or both can do more than cameo from the bench. It is a stopgap solution, but one that underlines how Scaloni trusts familiar faces, even in unfamiliar roles, more than he trusts the untested.

The Paz question

The real flashpoint in Argentina’s generational debate sits in midfield, with Nico Paz.

At 21, the Como playmaker has lit up Serie A over the past two seasons. Under the guidance of Cesc Fàbregas, Paz scored 13 goals and added seven assists this campaign, driving a newly promoted side to fourth place and a Champions League spot. He walked away with the Best Midfielder award at Serie A’s end-of-season ceremony. There is a growing belief that Real Madrid will trigger the buy-back clause in his contract this summer.

Paz plays on the half-turn, sees passes others ignore and embraces risk with the ball. His dynamism stands in sharp contrast to the more laboured displays Mac Allister has produced of late. Yet the youngster is likely to start this World Cup on the bench, his role limited initially by a minor knee issue that he has been managing.

That cannot be the end of his story at this tournament. Not if Scaloni wants to keep this team evolving rather than simply preserving it in amber.

The Argentina coach has shown before that he can be bold at the right moment. His decision in Qatar to throw a then-21-year-old Enzo Fernández into the line-up midway through the group stage changed the entire trajectory of that World Cup. Loyalty to his old guard has been a virtue, but if Argentina are to make it four trophies in four major tournaments, sentiment will at some point collide with reality.

The route to the final will not allow for nostalgia.

A brutal path and one last dance

If Argentina top Group J ahead of Algeria, Austria and Jordan, they will face the runners-up from Group H in the round of 32 – potentially Spain, more likely Uruguay. Survive that, and a last-16 meeting against the runners-up from either Group D (currently Australia) or Group G (potentially Belgium, Egypt or Iran) would await.

The real spike in difficulty looms in the quarter-finals. If the seedings hold, Portugal stand between Argentina and the last four. Messi versus Cristiano Ronaldo, one last time, with a World Cup semi-final on the line and the clock ticking on both careers.

By then, Scaloni will have to know his best team – not the one that was best in 2022, but the one that is best now. That may mean trusting Paz over a tiring Mac Allister, or unleashing Barco’s legs down the left, or giving Simeone a real shot in his natural role once the full-backs are fit.

The core that conquered the world in Qatar has earned its manager’s faith. It has also aged, accumulated miles and, in some cases, slowed. Kansas City will reveal whether Scaloni is prepared to refresh his masterpiece on the fly, or whether he will ride the old band one more time and hope they still have a final symphony left for Messi’s last World Cup.