Mini football figure - Argentina

Argentina

The Argentinian national football team is one of the most successful national football teams in the world, having won two World Cup titles (1978 and 1986) and three runner-up titles (1930, 1990, 2014). Argentina has won the Copa América 15 times, making it, together with Uruguay, the most successful team in this competition. Their last Copa América title came in 2021. They won the King Fahd Cup in 1992, the forerunner of the Confederations Cup. In 1928, it won the silver medal at the Olympic Games. In addition, the Olympic team, which included many senior players, won the gold medal in 2004 and 2008.

History

The first international match of an Argentine football team took place on 16 May 1901 in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, and ended 3-2 in favour of Argentina. As the Argentine team only included players who did not belong to the responsible Argentina Association Football League, the match was not recognised as an official international match. The first official international match on 20 July 1902 was won 6-0 by the Argentines against Uruguay in Montevideo.

Carlos Edgard Dickinson scored the first goal in Argentine football history.

They won the first of a total of 17 official titles in 1921 when they won the forerunner of the Copa América, the Campeonato Sudamericano. In 1910, Argentina had already won the unofficial South American Championship. They have won the Copa América fifteen times, the World Cup twice and the Confederations Cup once (1992, then the King Fahd Cup). A U23 team reinforced with senior players also won the Olympic Games twice (2004 in Athens and 2008 in Beijing). The senior national team won the Olympic silver medal in 1928.

In 1978, the Argentines won a World Cup on home soil for the first time. They repeated this success in 1986.

Major titles

• World champions (2) - 1978, 1986

• Copa América (15) - 1921, 1925, 1927, 1929, 1937, 1941, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1991, 1993, 2021

• Confederations Cup (1) - 1992 (then called the King Fahd Cup)

• CONMEBOL-UEFA Cup of Champions (Finalissima): 1993, 2022

Participation in the Summer Olympics

Argentina won the silver medal in the only participation of the senior national team in the 1928 Olympic Games. From 1952 onwards, senior national teams no longer took part, but amateur teams did, and finally, since 1992, expanded U-23 teams. Argentina took part in a total of seven Olympic football tournaments. The Olympic team won gold in 2004 and 2008, and silver in 1996. Argentina failed to qualify for the 2012 Olympic football tournament, in 2016 they were eliminated after the preliminary round, in 2020 they will be represented again. 

Records

With 201 international matches against Uruguay (of which FIFA counts 183), the Argentine team tops the list of most frequent international fixtures, with Argentina's matches against Brazil (101 times, of which FIFA counts 95) coming in 8th. Of the world champions, Argentina played the most matches against the other world champions, but over half of those were against Uruguay.

Argentina's highest win is also the highest win by a South American team.

Jerseys

For years, Argentina did not assign shirt numbers at World Cups according to player positions, but alphabetically according to player names; it was only in the 1980s, when Diego Maradona claimed the 10, that they switched to the usual system. Later, in honour of Maradona, they no longer wanted to assign the shirt number 10. This failed, however, due to FIFA's requirement of consecutive numbering from 1 to 23 for the World Cup, which meant that failure to allocate the 10 would result in the loss of a player's nomination.

Penalty shootout

Argentina has played in the most penalty shootouts at World Cups - all of them against European teams. The Argentines lost only one out of five. Their record is worse at the Copa America, where they lost five out of nine, including three finals. In addition, they lost once in a friendly match. In total, they lost seven penalty shootouts. Only Zambia (17 out of 35) and Malawi have lost more penalty shootouts. Their most frequent opponent was Brazil, against whom they won one of five penalty shootouts.

Nicknames

In German-language media, the team is often referred to by the nickname Gauchos. However, this is not in common use in Argentina itself. There, it is called la Albiceleste (the white-sky-blue).

Awards

The Italian sports newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport voted the Argentine national team "World Team of the Year" in 1978 and 1986.