Pablo Aimar's “commandments” in the Argentine national team: what he took from Bielsa and Pekerman, the value of the shirt and football as a game

“I think we should follow Pablo Aimar. He's a gentleman. The values he has given to the Juveniles and now to the Major. When you talk to Messi, with Di Maria, ask him about Aimar. It is a great reference for what is coming.”

Eduardo Dominguez, coach of Independiente, is not friends with the former hitch. But based on his preaching in the few appearances in the media, and the silent mark he leaves on his directors and on Ezeiza's venue, he points out him as a benchmark for the future of Argentine football. The director of the U17 National Team and assistant to Lionel Scaloni in La Mayor appears as a kind of lighthouse in this kind of greening albiceleste.

And, in fact, it is. Around the Clown (although this nickname today I consider it anachronistic) the renewal took place at the level of selections. He arrived, along with Diego Placente, as part of the structure that landed with Hermes Desio as general manager. But both transcended when the project mutated. And as a puzzle they coincided with Lionel Scaloni, of similar ideas. Today Javier Mascherano joined the U20. And Bernardo Romeo closed the package in the role of general coordinator.

Aimar carries his own ideas, but also the influence of José Pekerman and Marcelo Bielsa, who left behind in his training, and that combo is what he transmits in every gesture, every attitude, every job, every plan. Del Loco absorbed that amateur spirit that springs up at every step of the former Leeds's walk, or in the pose of Rodin's Thinker on the ice cream maker. “When I talk about enjoyment, I talk a lot about youth. He talks a lot about it in his talks. That makes you go out on the court with a wonderful high. Several times he mentioned to the person in the Interior, that his only joy of the week was going to be what he was going to see on television and that it started in five minutes, which was the match played by the National Team. One, at that moment, that you are 22 or 23 years old, you know that someone is your uncle, your grandfather. Those things make you play a game with the word motivation, which contains many things”, he knew how to declare.

From José, today coach of Venezuela, Argentina's next rival in the qualifiers, the internal rules of coexistence in the youth teams emerge. No cell phones on the table or in the locker room. There is one observation on social networks: no one forbids them anything, but the content does maintain a line of respect. “We even had talks in which they guided us about what content could harm us. They explained to us that we are national team players all the time, not just in Ezeiza,” said a young man who was under his tutelage.

Aimar and company also pay attention to ensure that young people fulfill their school tasks, they are aware of the academic training of the boys. “They are players two hours a day. The rest of the time they are people equal to everyone”, is one of the maxims of the former River Plate and Valencia. The DT and his team rely on the “three C's rule”: “containment, understanding and trust”.

In 2019, before the U17 World Cup in Brazil, in the games room of the Ezeiza venue, the coaching staff posted a poster with “8 commandments” to follow for promises under the title “our values”.

-Sense of belonging (give everything for the shirt)

-Determination (resolve with courage)

-Humility (recognizing mistakes, letting oneself help)

-Generosity (give more than our 100%)

-Enthusiasm (want to do, infect)

-Respect (please, thank you, permission, good morning)

-Teamwork (none is as good as all together)

-Commitment (always)

The enumeration ends with a motivating phrase for youth: “Wear this t-shirt... If you're excited to think about it, imagine living it!!!” .

Aimar deepens this point continuously in his discourse, the external one, before the microphones, and the intimate one, for the groups he has to command or accompany. “His talks aren't that long, he's very specific in what he says,” says another player who had him as costume manager. And in them he emphasizes that either the shirt or the diver of the National Team would never be removed, although he always enjoyed that privilege, without it becoming a pressure or a paralyzing element.

He remembered a phrase of his in 2018, which went viral and every so often resounds like an albiceleste mantra: “The first thing you feel is that you never want to leave the National Team. There are families who pay these clothes in 24 installments, and they give it to them for training. It's a great privilege.”

But, said it remained, all in a context in which responsibility is mixed with gambling. “They are obliged to have a good time, to enjoy what they are doing, the place where they are. But just tell them no, because if we tell them that we come here to enjoy and make 800 passes of 4 thousand meters it is difficult. There will be some who do because they are athletes, but the boys who are going to play football, I imagine they are going to play football,” he said in an interview with the radio program Todo Pasa.

In the Aimar universe, the process is as valuable as the port of arrival. “It doesn't go through the final result. I think we've helped these guys become a little better than they were four months ago, or at least we tried. We try not only to make it on the court, that they are polite, respectful... If it ends with a title that is seen. If it doesn't end with a title, you can't see it, but the job was done,” he said after the Olympic return at the South American U15 in 2017.

The same is true for football style. Today the DT uses the blackboard, but as a tool, not as a dogma. Inspire the inspiration of the boys in every minute spent in Ezeiza. In the imaginary Aimar, there is the idea of developing “creative spaces”. To do this, he appeals to exercises in tight spaces as a trigger. But practices, for example, begin with games; “playful” is not a bad word. The action starts with recreational movements or attentional tasks.

95% of jobs have ball as queen. It's true, the physical base the boys bring it from their clubs, but there is a search behind it. On the premises there is a court that has no limits, Showbol style, which Aimar expressly requested to encourage fast play, association and mindfulness. There are mini-matches of 15 to 20 minutes, of three or four times, in which the youth enter and leave without stopping the actions.

In addition, they say on the premises that the former game organizer, 42 years old, monitors the playing fields daily, asks that they be watered, that they be a cloth, so that the ball runs well and the young people lose their fear, even, of error. “We have to create creative environments for children. Football is a lot of imagination, it's not chess. The tower always goes forward and sideways. The horse also always makes the same movements. Not in football. They have to be wrong. If we at that age only play tactically we can't expect creative players. And I return to the defense trapped in the back, that was unlocked by a creative. One who imagines something different. We have to leave them and allow them to be wrong, especially at the age that I am, who are children playing football”, he knew how to raise.

Perhaps with that Clown in the mirror, the one that a certain Lionel Messi chose as an idol, Aimar seeks talent to shelter him, give him the environment to shine, in times of the mechanization of football as an almost unique, irrefutable discourse. “I don't like to hear that there are no creative players and I don't like to hear it either after doing 800 automated training sessions. It is very likely that there are no creative players if everything is automatic and if one who gambetes at 15 years old is told not to do it if he loses it 2 or 3 times. At that age they're going to lose her 2, 3, 5 or 10 times. I understand positional play, about attacking spaces. I believe more that coaches have to take care of this supposed, or real, lack of creativity. I think those block defenses are unlocked by a creative. A creative gambetes, invents something different when everything is monotonous”, he explained at the Magistral Congress, in which Spanish coaches Dani Guindos, Óscar Cano and Rubén de la Barrera also participated.

YOUR OTHER SELF

This expansive youth Aimar assumes another role in the Major, which he agreed to at the request of Lionel Scaloni, but as one more of a coaching staff that has strong names, such as Roberto Ayala or the Walter Samuel Wall. And he doesn't feel uncomfortable giving up the limelight. “I'm not surprised what Scaloni has done because he was always passionate about football. What I admire him most is the tranquility with which he took the place, how well he carries it, the communication and communion he has with the players. I have no doubt he's going to have a fantastic career. He, as head of the group, is someone who takes risks and takes them, and the peace with which he takes the place he is in is admirable,” he praised from his role as lieutenant, even though in Ezeiza everyone knows that his importance far exceeds the role of supporting actor.

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