Ariel Ortega, he was the first "successor of Maradona".
He played for Argentina in three World Cups and made his World Cup debut, replacing Maradona in Argentina against Greece in the 1994 World Cup. It was a hearty victory, I thought it was the beginning of another dream, but I didn't expect it to be the last tango of the ball king.
Unfortunately, the 34-year-old Maradona, although still very combative, was found to have taken banned drugs after two group games.
Some people say that this drug test is a conspiracy of some people, and only 2 people were randomly checked, and they won the ball king. Since then, Maradona has said goodbye to the World Cup forever.
In this way, the 20-year-old Ortega was not ready and was forced to walk from the bench to the front desk. However, Ortega, who was still wearing the number 17 shirt at the time, once again gave Argentine fans hope from disappointment, and Ortega's skillful dribbling made everyone exclaim "The new Maradona is born!" ”
The Argentina team in the 1994 World Cup can be said to be the strongest team in history, Barty, Redondo, Balbo, Ortega, Simeone, but what I didn't expect was that such a luxurious lineup was reduced to the embarrassing point of playing the play-offs with Australia in the South American qualifiers. In the end, coach Basile could only take the blame and ask the 34-year-old king to come out. Fortunately, Maradona was very patriotic and recruited when he learned that the national team was in difficulty.
Everyone knows that with Maradona on the field, Argentina is a group of "Pampas eagles", but on the contrary, Argentina without Maradona, with a luxurious squad, is actually a mess, the 1994 World Cup, although with two victories in the group stage, Argentina was able to enter the knockout stage. But the Argentine, who lost his soul, had no intention of fighting, and finally lost to Romania 2-3, ending the 1994 World Cup journey embarrassingly.
In the 1998 World Cup in France, Ortega, who has become the new core of the Argentina team, did live up to expectations, winning all three games in the group stage, especially against Jamaica, Ortega scored twice, and Barty brought the world a hearty 5-0 victory with a hat-trick, and fans seemed to see the invincible Argentina team and the "No. 10" that made them cry with joy, and people were already looking forward to Argentina's final cup.
However, when one thinks of heaven and one thought of hell, the growth of every genius needs to go through trials. The little donkey Ortega is far from the level of Maradona in terms of ball skills, but in temper and rebellion, he is better than Maradona!
In the 1/4 final between Argentina and the Netherlands, Ortega, who is only 170cm tall, unexpectedly turned over the 197CM tall van der Sar with his head without leaving the ground, and was sent off with a red card, which was a dramatic turning point, which led to the team's eventual elimination. However, Argentine fans forgave Ortega because this rebellion is the same as Maradona's.
The time came in 2002, at the World Cup in Korea and Japan, as the world's No. 1 team before the 2002 World Cup, after the run-in of the post-Maradona era, the squad has reached an unprecedented balance. However, they were drawn with England, Nigeria and Sweden in the group draw.
With a header from Barty, Argentina, beat Nigeria 1-0.
But in the match against the old rival England, youngster Owen won a controversial penalty with a fake fall, and David Beckham took the lead penalty. Argentina lost to the opponent who least wanted to lose. In the final group game, Argentina, who needed to go all out to win, ended up drawing 1-1.
Junior Irving
Argentina's No. 10 Ortega, who played as the main right winger, tried his best but still could not lead Argentina to a better result, and the Pampas Eagles returned home in the group stage, and in this way, Ortega, the first Argentina No. 10 in the post-Maradona era, withdrew from the World Cup stage.
Three World Cups, Ault completed his World Cup journey with the burden of "Maradona's successor", but Maradona is unique, whether it is Ortega or later Aimart, Riquelme, including the current Messi, can not fill Maradona's position in the hearts of Argentines.