Lionel Scaloni remains calm and cool as Argentina prepares to defend its World Cup title

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — The image is still remarkable.

Lionel Scaloni standing impassively on the sidelines after Gonzalo Montiel scored the decisive penalty in the final of the 2022 World Cup, giving Argentina its third star with a victory over France.

The coach didn’t celebrate at first, remaining still, silent, as if oblivious to the feat he himself had helped to accomplish. Several minutes later, he broke down when one of his players approached him, hugged him, and whispered: “We are world champions."

Scaloni almost never loses his cool. He didn’t when he was bombarded with criticism for his lack of experience while leading Argentina. Nor did he when Kylian Mbappé’s goals threatened the country's World Cup hopes four years ago. And he remains the same today as he faces the challenge of trying to repeat as a World Cup champion.

Those who know him say Scaloni learned to control his temper thanks to a hobby outside of soccer. Since retiring as a player, he dedicates two to three hours a day to cycling, a sport he took up on the recommendation of his friend, the former Spanish tennis player Carlos Moyá.

Pedaling his bicycle through the mountains of Mallorca, the Spanish island where he lives, or along the trails of his hometown of Pujato in the northwest of the South American country, Scaloni seeks to clear his mind and reflect.

“On the bike, you can think about your team, your opponent, how to prepare for the match. It really clears my head. I use it as therapy,” Scaloni said in several interviews. “It’s a good escape … it helps me lower my expectations, be calmer.”

In a few weeks, Scaloni will become the third coach to lead Argentina into consecutive World Cups, following in the footsteps of César Luis Menotti (1978 and 1982) and Carlos Bilardo (1986 and 1990), both also champions. But the youngest of the three doesn’t believe he deserves comparisons to the others.

“I don’t think we’re on the same level. They have established careers, they defined an era,” Scaloni has said repeatedly.

With no prior experience managing professional teams, Scaloni took over the team on an interim basis in 2018 after Argentina’s debacle in Russia, where the Argentinians were eliminated in the round of 16 months earlier. Meanwhile, the Argentine Football Association (AFA) was considering Mauricio Pochettino or Diego Simeone as candidates for the senior national team.

“Scaloni? He can’t even direct traffic,” Diego Maradona, who led Argentina to a World Cup championship in 1986, said at the time.

The inexperienced coach stayed on and Argentina went on to win the 2021 Copa América and successfully navigated the qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup.

In Qatar, Scaloni weathered a storm of criticism after a disappointing opening match against Saudi Arabia, revamped the team mid-tournament with the addition of then-rookies Enzo Fernández, Alexis Mac Allister, and Julián Álvarez, and, most importantly, unleashed the best version of Lionel Messi in a World Cup.

“The criticism was normal, I hadn’t coached anywhere. (Maradona) wasn’t far off,” Scaloni acknowledged shortly after lifting the cup, without any resentment toward the star who passed away in 2020.

Brazil was the last world champion to repeat in 1962.

Scaloni knows the demands will now be the same or even greater. He will have to defend the title with his star player nearing retirement at 38, while also dealing with turmoil within the Argentine football organization.

“The World Cup is very, very difficult. To win a World Cup, a lot of things have to come together, not just playing well,” Scaloni said in a recent interview with CONMEBOL. “Every time Argentina goes to a World Cup, it will try to reach its full potential. It’s very difficult, but not impossible.”

Scaloni made it clear to his players that being world champions didn’t guarantee them a place on the national team and demanded they never let their guard down.

“I don’t dwell on past achievements; you always have to keep looking ahead,” he said in late 2025. “With this jersey, you don’t have time to relax and think your place is secure.”

The Albiceleste won the Copa América in 2021 and 2024 and finished first in the South American qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, overcoming absences by Messi, who missed several matches due to physical problems.

“Argentina has achieved the best thing a national team can achieve: being a team,” Jorge Valdano, a World Cup champion with Argentina in 1986, said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “It’s a team with very clear leadership, that of the coach and Leo Messi, and players who haven’t lost their hunger.”

Twenty of the 26 players from the 2022 squad, including Messi, were included by Scaloni in the preliminary roster of 55 players for this tournament.

After the victory over Brazil in the World Cup qualifiers in November 2023, Scaloni shocked Argentine fans when he cast doubt on his future. “It’s not goodbye, but I need to think because the bar is set very high and it’s difficult to continue.”

The coach remained in his position, claiming that at the time he was overwhelmed by his elderly parents’ health problems. However, rumors circulated of alleged discontent between the coach and some players due to their unprofessional behavior during the team’s training camp before a loss to Uruguay in the qualifiers, prior to the match against Brazil.

Scaloni had to contend with turmoil within the Argentine football organization. The AFA leadership faces accusations of corruption and growing internal discontent over changes to the league format and refereeing decisions.

The World Cup preparations have also been questioned due to friendlies organized by the AFA against teams ranked very low in the FIFA rankings, such as Indonesia, Puerto Rico, Angola, Mauritania and Zambia, among others. The last two tests will be in June against Honduras and Iceland, which did not qualify for the tournament.

The coach, who is negotiating a contract extension, avoided complaining publicly. “Playing against the best doesn’t guarantee anything, and neither does this. We have to face whatever comes and be positive," he said. "The results will show whether we made the right call or not.”

Argentina will open in Kansas City against Algeria on June 16 in Group J. They will face Austria on June 22 and Jordan on June 27.

Scaloni remains calm, just as he did four years ago. He knows full well Argentinians expect him to defend the title and are not prepared for disappointment.

“We’re doing well, we’re eager. We’re aware that our opponents will play us differently because we’re the reigning champions. The important thing is that we’ll be there. After that, it’s football, and anything can happen.”

More World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

FILE - Argentina's coach Lionel Scaloni reacts during the Copa America final soccer match against Colombia in Miami Gardens, Fla., July 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

FILE - Argentina's coach Lionel Scaloni sings his national anthem prior to the Copa America final soccer match against Colombia in Miami Gardens, Fla., July 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

FILE - Argentina's coach Lionel Scaloni leads a training session ahead of a World Cup 2026 qualifying soccer match against Venezuela, at the Argentina Soccer Association in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello, File)

FILE - Argentina's head coach Lionel Scaloni kisses Argentina's Lionel Messi, right, at the end of the World Cup quarterfinal soccer match between the Netherlands and Argentina, at the Lusail Stadium in Lusail, Qatar, Dec. 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko, File)

ACERRA, Italy (AP) — Pope Leo XIV on Saturday greeted one by one families who lost loved ones to illegal toxic dumping in an area near Naples, as many paused to share photographs and other mementos of children and young people who have died or are battling cancer — illnesses tied to a multi-billion criminal racket run by the mafia.

Leo's visit to the so-called Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fires, came on the eve of the 11th anniversary of Pope Francis’ big ecological encyclical Laudato Si (Praised Be), and indicates Leo’s commitment to carry on his predecessor’s environmental agenda.

“I have come first of all to gather the tears of those who have lost loved ones, killed by environmental pollution caused by unscrupulous people and organizations who for too long were able to act with impunity,” Leo said in remarks to family members and local clergy inside Acerra's cathedral.

The pontiff recalled that the area now dubbed the Land of Fires was once called “Campania felix,” Latin for blessed or fruitful countryside, "capable for enchanting for its fertility, its produce and its culture, like a hymn to life.

"And yet — here is death, of the land and of men,'' the pope said.

The European Court of Human Rights last year validated a generation of residents’ complaints that mafia dumping, burial and burning of toxic waste led to an increased rate of cancer and other ailments in the area of 90 municipalities around Caserta and Naples, encompassing a population of 2.9 million people.

The court found Italian authorities had known since 1988 about the toxic pollution, blamed on the Camorra crime syndicate that controls waste disposal, but failed to take necessary steps to protect the residents. The binding ruling gave Italy two years to set up a database about the toxic waste and verified health risks associated with living there.

Bishop Antonio Di Donna in opening remarks estimated 150 young people had died in the city of some 58,000 over the past three decades — emphasizing that the number didn't take into account adults and victims in other municipalities.

He urged the pope to admonish those who continue to pollute, noting that the dumping of tons of toxic waste was reported a day earlier near Castera. Di Donna said that Italian officials had identified dozens more human-caused contamination sites throughout the country, including the Venetian port of Marghera, and the leaching of PFAS forever chemicals into groundwater near Vicenza.

"We say to those brothers of ours ensnared in evil and seized by a mirage of fabulous earnings: Convert, change your ways, because what you are doing is not only a crime, it is a sin that cries out to God for vengeance,'' the bishop said.

The pope later greeted the mayors of the 90 communities impacted by the toxic dumping, and greeted thousands of people waving yellow flags and chanting “Papa Leone” along the route of his popemobile and in a central piazza.

The victims include Maria Venturato, who died of cancer in 2016 at the age of 25. Her father, Angelo, said he hopes to speak with the pope to explain their reality, “not for me … for the next generation.”

“I’d like to give these young people a future, so I’m asking for the pope’s help with this. That is, I’m making a strong appeal to him to go to those in power and say, ‘Look, let’s heal this land of fires,’" he said on the eve of the pope's visit.

Inside the cathedral, Filomena Carolla presented the pope with a book containing memories from the life of her daughter, Tina De Angelis, who died of cancer at the age of 24.

“I’m just angry at the people who poisoned the soil, because what did our children have to do with it? What did they have to do with it, so young,” Carolla told The Associated Press on Friday.

Francis' plans to visit the area in 2020 were canceled due to the pandemic.

A man presents a pizza with the portrait of Pope Leo XIV during his a one-day pastoral visit in Acerra, Italy, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)

Pope Leo XIV delivers his speech during his meeting with clergy, religious and families of victims of environmental pollution in the Saint Mary of the Assumption Cathedral in Acerra, near Naples, Italy, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV rides on his popemobile during his one-day pastoral visit in Acerra, Italy, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)

A man enters a grocery store with posters of Pope Leo XIV ahead of his visit to the southern Italian town of Acerra in the Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fires, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Acerra bishop Antonio Di Donna speaks during an interview with the Associated Press ahead of Pope Leo XIV's visit to the southern Italian town of Acerra in the Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fires, an area scarred by decades of pollution from illegal waste dumping and burning, much of it linked to organized criminal groups, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Illegal waste is seen on the side of a road in the outskirts of the southern Italian town of Acerra in the Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fires, an area scarred by decades of pollution from illegal waste dumping and burning, much of it linked to organized criminal groups, Friday, May 22, 2026, a day ahead of Pope Leo XIV's visit. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Illegal waste is seen on the side of a road in the outskirts of the southern Italian town of Acerra in the Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fires, an area scarred by decades of pollution from illegal waste dumping and burning, much of it linked to organized criminal groups, Friday, May 22, 2026, a day ahead of Pope Leo XIV's visit. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Angelo Venturato talks during an interview with the Associated Press next to photos of his daughter Maria who died at the age of 25 of a cancer he claims to be connected to decades of pollution from illegal waste dumping and burning, much of it linked to organized criminal groups, in the southern town of Acerra, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)