In the line of duty

Published on Saturday 15 November 2008 18:50

IN A THROWBACK to the days when there were no prima-donnas, never mind Maradonas, two of Argentina's Premier League stars will arrive in Scotland by train this week.

If it isn't quite a tribute to the British railroad workers who introduced football to their homeland more than a century ago, there is about Jonas Gutierrez and Fabricio Coloccini a gratifying whiff of the past. The Newcastle United pair would walk to Glasgow, and probably swim to Buenos Aires, if it meant they could play for their country.

Few shirts are worn with more pride than the faded stripes of the Albicelestes, which seem to represent another world, another era, when clubs were a means to an end, and international football had yet to become an afterthought. Coloccini, an athletic centre-half with old-fashioned values, and a Seventies perm, knows where his priorities lie. "For us, it's everything, the absolute maximum," he says. "Every Argentine player wants to be part of the national team. That is his main aim."

No points will be on offer at Hampden this Wednesday, but with Diego Maradona in charge for the first time, and a few too many shabby performances of late, the team whose predecessors lifted the World Cup in 1986 and 1978 have business to attend to. Gutierrez, another grizzly figure, tall for a winger, with hair down about his shoulders, all but growls in response to an inquiry about the forthcoming friendly. "Argentina never have friendly games," he replies. "The national team has to win every game. Playing for them is the greatest feeling in the world. It's an honour to wear the shirt."

Kris Boyd would be well advised to take note. Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano, the other half of Argentina's UK-based quartet, hardly need a match against Scotland to compound their punishing schedules with Manchester United and Liverpool, but it hasn't prevented either making himself available. The only absentee will be Lionel Messi, whose participation was prohibited by his club, Barcelona. Maradona has made Mascherano his captain, just as Carlos Bilardo did him in 1983, when the player set about introducing a culture of loyalty that remains to this day.

"The first thing I resolved that moment was to create something: a conscience to play for the national team had to be the most important thing in the world," he wrote in his autobiography. "If we had to travel thousands and thousands of kilometres, do it. If we had four matches in a week, play them. If we had to stay in little hotels that were falling apart, accept it ... Everything, everything for the blue and white."

Still they live by his creed. Coloccini turned down a career with AC Milan to put country before club. Born in Cordoba, and introduced to the professional game by Boca Juniors, he joined the Rossoneri in 1999, but made only four appearances in five years. In 2005, after long loan spells with San Lorenzo, Alaves, Atletico Madrid and Villarreal, he rejected an offer by the club's coach, Carlo Ancelotti, in favour of a move to Deportivo La Coruna that would enhance his international prospects.

"It was difficult, because I ended up having to choose between Milan and Argentina. Ancelotti said that he wanted me to stay, that I was young and would make it there, but the World Cup was such a massive thing for me. It was the biggest thing that I could do. I'm sorry that it had to be a choice, because Milan was a great opportunity for me. But, having grown up watching all the great Argentina players at World Cups, that was the thing I wanted."

Already a gold medal winner at the 2004 Olympics, Coloccini has 32 caps to his name, two of them secured at the 2006 World Cup, where he started against Holland in the quarter-finals. He knows better than most that Argentina, now lying third in their qualifying zone for the 2010 World Cup, are capable of better. "We don't know yet what type of game Diego will want us to play, but there is a real chance for us to be a special team. I think we need to have a bit more faith in our own abilities. It's a mental thing. We have some of the best players in the world, and we have to find ways to exploit that."

Coloccini, whose transfer cost Newcastle 10.3m in the summer, has adjusted quickly to English football. He takes frequent English lessons, but it is his manager, Joe Kinnear, who has the language problem. "I've never worked for a coach like him before. When he starts to talk, I don't understand what he says, but when the other players explain it to me, it's usually bad words. He's a particular kind of character."

Football in Argentina also has a coarseness about it, a legacy perhaps of the British immigrants who first showed them the game. The pity is that more have not followed the trail blazed by Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa in 1978, who overcame the cultural difficulties too many others have struggled with. There have been successes, such as Gabriel Heinze and Julio Arca, but until now, they have been rare in the Premier League. "I don't know why more don't come," says Coloccini. "They could do well here. They have the technique, but also the physical strength."

Coloccini, who has twice experienced European nights at Celtic Park, has been known to partake in the odd fracas. Like everyone in Argentina, his hero is Maradona, but his "No.2" is Walter Samuel, the defender who became known as The Wall during three years with AS Roma. "My main reason for coming here was that I like the English style – you have to be physical and skilful at the same time. It fits in well with the way I like to play. You have to fight, use your brain for the whole game, every week. I love it because it's more difficult for defenders."

Gutierrez, who studied English in Argentina, is equally at home on these shores. In the country of his birth, he is known as El Galgo (The Greyhound). At his last club, Real Mallorca, they called him Forrest Gump because he never stopped running. No wonder he is popular on Tyneside, where he tracks back almost as quickly as he surges forward. In the last 12 months, he has secured all six of his international caps, excelled against Brazil, and taken to another level a career that started slowly with Velez Sarsfield.

When his new coach called him recently, Gutierrez was breathless with excitement. "I spoke to him for a couple of minutes, and even that phone call was an incredible experience for me. It's incredible for the players that Maradona is the manager because he's our childhood hero, but we're trying not to think of him as that. We're trying to think of him only as our manager."

Gutierrez is most famous for the Spiderman celebration he once indulged in after scoring for Mallorca. He had been to see the movie at a local cinema, where he promised a family that he would don a mask of the superhero next time he found the net. The Newcastle player, who has yet to score for his club, has no plans to repeat the trick should he score his first international goal at Hampden on Wednesday. Playing for Argentina is a serious business.

ARGENTINA'S KEY MEN

Sergio Aguero

`FIFA's Young Player of the Year 2007, the 20-year-old's potency up front for Atletico Madrid has won the approval of Maradona, while similar facets off the field have won the heart of the legend's now-pregnant daughter, Giannina.

Carlos Tevez

Despite his friend Maradona's concern that he is not getting enough first-team starts with Manchester United, the new Argentina manager is a big fan of the striker's strength – physical and mental. Tevez will be keen to prove his idol right.

German Denis

A slow-burner, the wonderfully-named 27-year-old front man will earn just his fourth cap if he features at Hampden. His muscular physique has earned him the nickname of 'The Tank' at Maradona's former club, Napoli, where he plies his trade.

Javier Mascherano

The Liverpool midfielder was reluctant to accept the captain's armband from Maradona, citing his quiet personality in the dressing room, but his uncompromising nature on the park should be inspiration enough for his team-mates.