Jorge Luis Burruchaga, scorer of the goal that gave Argentina victory in the World Cup final in Mexico’63, assured EFE that for the imminent Qatar World Championship 2022 the albiceleste team has “a great team around” Leo Messi, whom he said is in a “joyful and emotionally barbaric”.
Burruchaga (Entre Ríos, Argentina; 1962) was a professional player between 1979 and 1998 in teams like Arsenal de Sarandí and Independiente, in Argentina, and in Nantes and Valenciennes, from France. In addition, with the albiceleste team he played 63 matches, scored fourteen goals, won the World Cup in Mexico’86 and was a finalist in Italy’90.
“In Mexico’90 there was a group that was very strong and there was a group of players of enormous personality such as Ricardo Enrique Bochini, Marcelo Trobiani or Daniel Passarella. Players with a lot of self-criticism, something that is scarce today, and a hunger through the coach (Carlos Bilardo) and Diego Maradona that transformed us all”, he recalled.
“We were world champions as we deserved because we were the best and we didn’t lose any games. The group had the ability to overcome everything because it was a hard, complicated process, and they wanted to drag us out but we resisted”, said Burruchaga, who shared a dressing room for many years in the albiceleste team with Diego Armando Maradona, who died on 25 November 2020.
“I have lived many moments with him, especially in football, with two World Cups played. The last meeting I had was in Abu Dhabi in 2016, on his birthday. He fulfilled 56. We chat a lot. The last thing he knew, two months before he died, was that he could tell that he was having difficulties. He had accustomed us to dribbling death and had accustomed us so much that it seemed like one more episode that he was going to come out of. Today he will be in the place he wanted to be with his lady ‘Tota’ and his father”, he pointed out.
25 years after Argentina’s last victory in a World Cup, in Mexico’86, the Albiceleste team captained by Leo Messi aspires again to win the Champions Cup.
“To Brazil 2014 We were very excited and reached the final. To Russia 2018 not so much but it was generated at this time, after that championship, the natural replacement, in which these young boys appeared enthusiastic like everyone when we started in the selection”, he pointed out.
“Leo Messi is different, already very big, with another game, keeping his own but playing in a different way, more organized, much calmer. He took a weight off his shoulders after winning the Copa América (2021). Although the Argentine by nature is excited to become champion and unfortunately it has been 36 years since we did not succeed, this year we have chance to be among the four. It is the goal that one sets for oneself and Argentina is qualified”, he declared.
“ For Messi, moreover, it is going to be his fifth World Cup and he seizes it emotionally barbaric. He is seen. In Paris he looks good, happy, very involved in the role he has to play and helped. Around a great player there is a great team and Argentina today has a great team and it is not easy with an exclusive figure that is Leo”, he stressed.
For this World Cup in Qatar 2022, Burruchaga believes that “Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands are in that group of dangerous although as favorites it seems that Brazil, Argentina and France, being world champions, are one step above although it is not easy to revalidate”.
“In addition to Germany you should never leave it behind. There are five or six teams behind those that can be candidates but Spain has the capacity”, he pointed out.
Burruchaga, who was in Madrid to donate the ball with which the semifinal was played against Italy in the World Cup of 1990 to Legends, a future museum of soccer relics that will open in a few months in the Spanish capital, spoke about a compatriot of his who Diego Simeone has made history at Atlético de Madrid.
“It has been successful for ten years. He transformed Atlético and is a great coach. What is happening now are circumstances that happen because not every year you are going to win. It is the weakest year that he has, being out of the Champions League and far from the League championship. The transformation that he has made in Atlético is enormous and he does not have to stain the present, although football, like life, is present”, he concluded.