One year has passed since Argentina's victory in Qatar and, taking advantage of the memory, we returned to the comparison game. Which Argentine team was the best among the three world champions? We should not be surprised by this competitive impulse between us. While the world has spent twenty years taking off its hat because Argentina gave football the last genius of the 20th century and the first genius of the 21st century, we continue comparing them to the search for a winner. We are also the inventors of “The Grieta”, an abyss between opposites so that no one is tempted to agree with a truism proposed by the other political side.
Back to the topic. I refuse to participate in the game because refuting or confirming the opinions would make me fall into an error that is beyond my imagination. My first life was full of football dreams that did not fall short. I imagined myself wearing the Argentina shirt competing against the best teams in the world to demonstrate our status as a superior race (football exaggerates everything, even arrogance) in the most popular subject that exists. I wanted to wear that shirt to defend our football culture before the world. What I never dreamed of was wearing it to beat other generations of Argentine players who had had the same purpose as me. Idols that I didn't want to beat, but rather be like.
It is difficult to compare eras and that goes for the individual and the collective. What was the best Argentine team of all time? In addition to rejecting the game, I think I wouldn't know how to choose. What I know is which is, for me, the most important: without a doubt the one from '78, the first one that made us know the glory of being champion. From that moment on, finishing second in any major event, including a World Cup, was considered a dishonor. Those heroes raised the level of demand to the maximum limit, making the shirt weigh more in the soul of the Argentine player. The following champions were blessed by talent, organization and even luck, but this is comparable to a rout, the first goal is worth more than the others. Exploring a conquered land is not the same as one to be conquered. So, thank you guys from all of us who came after.
The generation of '78 had to achieve glory within a political and social scenario that stained everything it touched. Also football. The story of those heroes bears the burden of that prejudice. But that team honored the Argentine taste for soccer at a time when “La Nuestra” meant something. Of '86 I will only say that we put one more stone in history with our Diego at the helm and a group that is still united today as a great team. You won't tell me that there is no human merit in this. There is no need to talk about the champion in Qatar because the emotions are still fresh.
Another question is worth asking: Do you have to be a champion for a team to see its excellence recognized? There were extraordinary generations that did not have the lucky point, they left their lives in the effort and mourned its elimination. Those, us and these players are a single team that built history by contributing everything we had.
We gave everything because it is an honor. We gave it with the strength of pride for defending something as ours as football. That is the mandate of our history for all those who, in the future, put on the sacred jersey. And if it's time to become champion, celebrate like crazy like we did after the feat in Qatar. But without making the wrong rival and without touching, not even with a pen, those who built our history.
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