Lionel Scaloni, the coach of the Argentine national team, made his first comments after losing the 2026 World Cup title.
MetLife Stadium hosted the 2026 World Cup final between Argentina and Spain, where the latter won 1-0.
Scaloni said in comments published by the Spanish newspaper AS: "I feel sad at the moment, but first and foremost I feel eternally grateful to those players, as getting here was extremely difficult."
He added: "We are great at winning and we want to be great at losing. We must always remember what we have done. We gave it our all. I know we gave everything on the pitch. I have a lot to say, but there is no need to go on too long."
He continued: "Honestly, Spain were better than us, but I'm focused on what we've achieved so far. We've shown that we know how to lose, we accept things. I want to thank the fans and my players. I want to tell the country that we did everything we could. We wanted to win, but I have nothing but words of thanks. You can play well or badly, but when you give your all, that's how it goes to find any fault."
He concluded: "I never imagined any of us in the coaching staff would be in this situation, and in order to continue there are many things that need to be done, especially rebuilding something like this that is unlikely to be repeated. This hurts my soul deeply."
Argentina failed to retain the World Cup title for the second time in a row after winning the title in the 2022 edition held in Qatar.
