The Argentina Football Association has conmformed that national team coach Jose Pekerman has stepped down from his post.
“Pekerman has told me he’s not going to continue with the national team,” Julio Grondona, president of the Argentina Football Association (AFA), told Ole.
Pekerman first announced his decision immediately after his team lost on penalties to hosts Germany in the quarter-finals of the World Cup following a 1-1 draw, but his resignation was not immediately accepted by the AFA.
Grondona refused to be drawn on possible successors.
“We’ll wait and see. We haven’t thought about this because it (the World Cup) is still very recent,” he said.
Ole named 10 possible successors, ranging from Diego Maradona to veteran Carlos Bilardo, who led Argentina to the title in 1986.
Pekerman, who won three World Youth championships, was promoted to the senior side in October 2004 and took his highly-fancied squad to Germany for the World Cup finals. They were eventually knocked out of the competition at the quarter-final stage by Germany after a penalty shootout.
Pekerman was held responsible for that defeat following his decision to remove playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme and replace him with the more defensively-minded Esteban Cambiasso.
