Rio De Janeiro: From Bramall Lane in Sheffield to a World Cup final in Brazil, Argentina boss Alejandro Sabella’s path to the most important game in world football wasn’t always paved with gold.
Sabella the player, much like the manager, was a modest professional and after an early career breakthrough at River Plate found himself in the unusual surrounds for an Argentinian in the late 1970s of the English lower leagues with Sheffield United.
Legend has it that the Blades had tried to sign a teenage Diego Maradona but found his asking price too high and opted for the cheaper option in Sabella instead.
Sabella’s agent Eugenio Lopez confirmed on Friday that Sunday’s final against Germany will almost certainly be his last game in charge of Argentina no matter the outcome. His final task to succeed where Maradona failed in a 4-0 thrashing by the Germans in the quarterfinals in South Africa.
At the start of the tournament he was looked upon as merely a facilitator for the squad’s leading players, most notably Lionel Messi, after bowing to the demands of the four-time World Player of the Year to drop a 5-3-2 formation after just 45 minutes of the opening game against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
However, he has still managed to impose the control that he craves.
That has been shown in his preference for Lucas Biglia over Fernando Gago in the last two games and his decision to leave the creative talents of Ever Banega and Jose Sosa out of the 23-man squad altogether.
Those decisions weren’t the ones that caused controversy in Argentina, though, as it was national hero Carlos Tevez’s exclusion that dominated debate for months leading up to the World Cup.
However, Sabella’s fear that Tevez’s inclusion would unbalance the dynamic within the squad has been vindicated.
Sabella has remained a figure of fun at times during the tournament after having water squirted on him dismissively by Ezequiel Lavezzi and comically stumbling in aghast after Gonzalo Higuain had struck the bar against Switzerland.
