1978, 1986 or 2022: which Argentina side was the greatest?

Argentina have won the World Cup three times before this summer, and every generation picks the one they grew up with. That is fine for the pub. It does not settle anything. So let's take the three sides properly.

1978: the one with an asterisk

Menotti's team won at home, and home was not a neutral word in Argentina in 1978. The country was under a military junta, the tournament was a shop window for the generals, and the 6-0 win over Peru that sent Argentina past Brazil on goal difference has been argued about ever since. Nobody has ever proved anything. Nobody has ever quite let it go either.

On the pitch there was plenty to admire. Mario Kempes scored six goals, including two in the final against the Netherlands, and Argentina won 3-1 after extra time. The Dutch had no Cruyff, which matters. Kempes was magnificent, Ardiles was clever, Fillol was outstanding in goal.

But the greatest? A team that needed a suspicious scoreline and a diminished opponent is not the answer, however much the country needed that trophy at the time.

2022: the most complete team

Scaloni's side was better organised than either of the others. They lost their opening game to Saudi Arabia, which should have broken them, and instead they won seven straight and did not really wobble again until Mbappé decided to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final.

That final is the best match the tournament has produced. Messi scored twice, Di María was unplayable for 45 minutes, Emiliano Martínez made the save at the end of extra time that people will still be describing in fifty years, and Argentina won on penalties. Messi finished with seven goals and finally had the medal that his career had been missing.

The squad was deeper than 1986 by a distance. Álvarez, Mac Allister, Enzo Fernández, De Paul, Otamendi. This was a proper team, not a supporting cast.

So why isn't it top? Because greatness at a World Cup is measured against the size of the thing being carried, and Messi in 2022 was carried as much as he carried. That is not an insult. It is a compliment to the eleven around him.

1986: one man, one tournament

Bilardo's squad was ordinary in places and everybody knew it. Valdano was very good. Burruchaga was very good. Beyond that you are into players whose names survive only because of who they played alongside.

Maradona scored five and set up five. Against England he scored the two most famous goals ever put in the same net by the same player within four minutes: the punched one, and then the run from inside his own half through half the England team. Against Belgium in the semi he scored twice, the second of them arguably better than either. In the final, with West Germany having clawed back from 2-0 to 2-2, he slid the pass that put Burruchaga through for the winner.

He was fouled constantly, kicked by everyone, and he kept getting up and doing it again. He dragged a decent side to a World Cup by force of will and left the whole tournament looking like something he had personally arranged.

The verdict

The 2022 team was the better team. The 1978 team was the luckier team. The 1986 team had Diego Maradona at the peak of his powers, and one player has never mattered more to one trophy.

Maradona is the greatest footballer who ever lived, and Mexico 86 is the evidence. That makes 1986 the greatest Argentina side. Argentina lost the final in New Jersey this summer, which only sharpens the point: winning it once with a squad like that was a miracle.