'It hurts my soul': Lionel Scaloni couldn't hide Argentina's World Cup pain

Jul 20, 2026 - 02:35

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EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ — His voice cracked. Eyes glistened. Hands wiped away the tears. Face red, trying to keep it together. But he couldn't.

Lionel Scaloni apologized and then walked out of his postgame news conference, mourning the loss of of the World Cup trophy that once belonged to Argentina. This time, it belonged to Spain.

"We all thought on the coaching staff about being in this place," Scaloni said, pausing full of emotion as reporters clapped for him to continue. "And so to continue, a lot of things are needed, especially to reset again."

"Forming a group like this again," he stopped to dry his eyes. "Which is hard to recreate again and ..." he broke up. "And it hurts my soul," he squeaked out as he stood up from his chair to leave. "I'm sorry."

Scaloni's humanity – the very thing that makes him so relatable and special as an international soccer coach – could not be ignored Sunday, July 19, in the broad white tent set up just outside Metlife Stadium to put on display the winners and losers of the World Cup final.

Argentina lost 1-0, but it took a ferocious Spain to extra time with just 10 men. What could have happened if they kept 11 on the pitch, he wondered.

Scaloni will remember this loss. But Argentina will remember Scaloni as one of the greats. With 104 matches in charge of one of the greatest dynasties in sports, led by the greatest player in Lionel Messi, Scaloni is on track to be the best manager the country has ever had. Under him, Argentina already has a World Cup title and a pair of Copa América trophies. But this was likely Messi's last World Cup, and everyone on that team wanted one more.

The pain of letting go of that dream stung. Scaloni, 48, has plenty of time to realize it again.

"I'm deeply sorry for what he's going through. However, he should be happy," Spain coach Luis de la Fuente said through a translator after the match. "He’s broken all records. There’s so much ahead of him. He’s young. I told him he’s much younger than me, more football left than me."

Scaloni and de la Fuente are uniquely tied together as mentee and mentor, respectively. They spoke before the tournament and they hugged each other after that match. They even gave each other advice along the way.

Scaloni's contract with Argentina is up in December. He said he will see it through. What's next? That hasn't yet been written, but after all he's accomplished there will inevitably be teams lining up to court him.

"I can only be grateful," Scaloni said at the start of his news conference. "Grateful to this group. I hope that we manage to achieve something like this again. It’s so diff and challenging to achieve what we’ve achieved. Of course it hurts. We couldn’t compete head to head today when it comes to football. It was really painful. It hurt in our soul.

"I already cried my heart out in the locker room; that’s why I’m not crying right now."

That didn't last long.