Lionel Scaloni’s side left an indelible mark on Argentinian hearts and minds with their victorious campaign at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™. Overjoyed fans flooded the streets both in Doha and up and down the South American country, and elation coursed through the veins of millions.
The emotional charge of this long-awaited moment was only heightened for the former world champions who had starred at the 1978 and 1986 editions of the global showpiece. Ricardo Giusti, one of the key members of Carlos Bilardo’s contingent at Mexico 1986, gave a succinct and honest assessment: “I felt a huge release.”
Now aged 69, Giusti was a relatively unsung hero in one of the most unforgettable World Cup-winning sides in history, featuring Diego Maradona in devastating form. The team lined up in a 3-5-2 formation, which was almost unheard of at the time, and Giusti acted as a midfield dynamo, working tirelessly in the engine room to win the ball back and spark their attacking play.
The midfielder, who played his club football for Independiente in those days, started every single match of the campaign that took La Albiceleste to glory for a second time, eight years after their inaugural global conquest in 1978.
At the FIFA World Cup 2026™, Argentina will begin their trophy defence in Group J, pitting their wits against Algeria, Austria and Jordan. The South Americans have not faced the test of attempting to retain the title since Italy 1990. Giusti, along with the likes of Maradona, Sergio Batista and Oscar Ruggeri, knows exactly how that feels and the magnitude of the challenge that lies ahead.
In an interview with FIFA, the former midfield enforcer described the emotions stirred by Argentina’s 2022 triumph among his peers and the differences in the Albiceleste camp between 1986 and 1990.
Ricardo Guisti: Well, it had been one disappointment after another. I went to almost all of our games at the World Cup in Brazil [in 2014], and the failure to win the title left me with a nagging sense of what could have been. It just didn’t feel right, knowing that we had been the last ones to lift the trophy. I couldn’t believe that Argentina were unable to win another title with the players we had, including the best player in the world in the shape of Lionel Messi. I felt a huge release when we won it in Qatar. In fact, I don’t think there was a dry eye among us: we all cried or at least teared up.
It was incredible, especially because things happened that are tough to deal with in a final. It’s difficult to win a final comfortably. This one ended with that stop by Dibu [Emiliano Martínez, from Randal Kolo Muani’s strike] to keep us in the game and then the penalty shoot-out. A series of things ramped up the emotion and made you feel your heart couldn’t take it at times. To be honest – and I think the other guys from 1986 would agree, and the 1978 crop too, because we had met up and we’re still talking about it to this day – I feel it was a huge reward for some of the players who had battled so hard with that group.
First of all, the players are four years older. Those of us who were 29 or 30 in Mexico were 33 in Italy in 1990. And we also didn’t go into it in the same shape as we did in 1986 – I mean, in terms of our fitness and our form, we weren’t at the same level. Diego wasn’t firing on all cylinders. Ruggeri had groin problems. Burru [Jorge Burruchaga] had pulled a muscle in a friendly. We ended up reaching the final without playing well, but it wasn’t the same.
Well, first of all, the players have to follow the coach’s instructions; otherwise, it’d be chaos. The lads who are going to feature at their first World Cup have to ask questions, speak up and prepare themselves. When I was gearing up to play at the 1986 tournament, I felt like I was making my first-team debut. You don’t know what to expect. Football is football, but you’re always wondering in the back of your mind what it’ll be like, whether the referee will be stricter or more lenient, if you’ll be allowed to speak to him or not.
You have the same question marks over the opposition, and you have to bear in mind that, at the World Cup, your opponents are their country’s top players. So, there’s a degree of uncertainty about what’s going to happen just before your debut. Playing in a World Cup is a different beast to anything else.
We were a little older and maybe feeling the knocks a little more, but we played the same way. We got up and down the pitch just as well as some of the youngsters, or maybe better. Your experience, the fact that you’ve already played in at least one World Cup, lets you take it more in your stride. Your heart’s not pounding like it is for someone who’s going to play in the competition for the first time.
