Friday, February 10, 2023 – 2:59 PM
ABU DHABI, 10th February, 2020 (WAM) — Despite the great achievement of the Italian Carlo Ancelotti, the coach of Real Madrid, and the Spanish coach Josep Guardiola, the coach of Manchester City, the Argentine coach Lionel Scaloni, the coach of his country, has a strong trump card to compete with the great coaches for the “Best Coach” award for the year 2022.
And the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) announced the final list of candidates for the “Best Coach” award for the year 2022, which included the three coaches after a great achievement for each of them last year, noting that FIFA decided that the evaluation period for all coaches would be from August 8, 2021 to August 18. December 2022 to forcefully enter the World Cup in the evaluation process.
FIFA presents the award to the winning coach during its annual “Best” award ceremony, scheduled for February 27.
The final list for this award witnessed the exit of coach Walid Regraki, the coach of the Moroccan national team, despite the achievement of his team reaching the semi-finals in the 2022 World Cup. Coach Didier Deschamps, coach of the French national team, who reached the 2022 World Cup final, also left the list.
Regragui and Deschamps were among the preliminary list of candidates announced by FIFA on January 12.
And while both Ancelotti and Guardiola achieved a great achievement over the course of many months, the Argentine national football team’s victory in the 2022 World Cup title, which took only 29 days at the end of the evaluation period, was enough for Lionel Scaloni, the coach of the Argentine national team, to become a strong competitor for the FIFA award.
And Ancelotti continued to write history in his coaching career by leading Real Madrid to two prominent titles last season, when he crowned the team with the La Liga title, with a well-deserved difference of 13 points from the stubborn traditional competitor, Barcelona.
Ancelotti followed this title with another more important achievement, when he led the team to win its 14th European Champions League title, reinforcing this record for Real Madrid in the number of times winning the championship title.
And the size of the achievement was compounded by the enormous challenges that Ancelotti and his team faced on the way to the podium; Where he overcame more than a major obstacle in the knockout stages of the tournament by defeating Paris Saint-Germain, France, Chelsea, who won the title in the 2020-2021 season, and Manchester City and Liverpool, England, all of whom were among the favorites to win the title.
Also, Ancelotti led the team to win the Spanish Super Cup and European Super Cup last season.
In the same season, Guardiola, coach of Manchester City, was on a date with a great achievement as well, by winning the English Premier League title, which is the most powerful and difficult league in the world.
Guardiola deservedly won the title with the team as well, and after fierce competition from Liverpool, it extended until the last round, and City settled it by one point.
Throughout the season, the team, led by Guardiola, made outstanding performances, scoring 99 goals in 38 league matches, through a performance that dazzled the audience.
Guardiola also reached the Champions League semi-finals, and was about to reach the final, but Real Madrid’s last-minute uprising denied the team a new opportunity to compete for the European title.
And with the end of the evaluation period, specified by FIFA, Scaloni, the coach of the Argentine national team, was on a date with an achievement worthy of appreciation. Where he was crowned the 2022 World Cup after defeating the French national team in the final of the tournament.
Scaloni, known for his calmness and leadership abilities, played a prominent role in the team’s victory in the world title, to be the team’s first title in the World Cup since it won its second title in the tournament in 1986 in Mexico, and it is the third for the Argentine national team in the history of the tournament after the 1978 and 1986 titles.
The famous star Lionel Messi, the captain of the Argentine national team that won the title, described the role of his coach, saying: “(Scaloni) does not leave anything to chance. He explains all the details to you, and then you see these details as they happen.”
Scaloni and his team’s road to the world title podium was not easy at all, especially after the sudden defeat the team suffered against its Saudi counterpart 1-2 at the beginning of its championship career.
The team, led by Scaloni, quickly regained its balance and overcame more than one difficult obstacle by passing the teams of Mexico, Poland, Australia, the Netherlands and Croatia on its way to the final against the French team, which won the world title in the 2018 edition.
In the final, the character of the Argentine national team, led by Scaloni, appeared; Where the team presented a show characterized by enthusiasm and fighting spirit until the last minute in a marathon confrontation that ended in a 3-3 draw after extra time and was decided by a penalty shootout in favor of the Argentine national team.
Ahmed Al-Boutli / Ahmed Zahran
