Argentina's Rising Stars: Why Nico Paz and Thiago Almada Could Define the World Cup Campaign

Tonight at Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, Argentina begin the defence of their world title against Algeria — and the debate tearing apart fan forums isn't about Messi. It's about who fills the space around him. Two names keep surfacing: Nico Paz, the 21-year-old Serie A sensation from Como, and Thiago Almada, the electric Atlético Madrid winger with a World Cup winner's medal already in his pocket. One is untested on the tournament's biggest stage. The other has been waiting four years for this moment. Both, right now, are the most fascinating footballers in the Albiceleste squad.

There is a sentence that stops you in your tracks: Nico Paz is set to become the first player in Argentina national team history to appear at a World Cup without ever having played club football in Argentina — not even at youth level. Born in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, forged at Real Madrid, now the creative heartbeat of Cesc Fàbregas's ambitious Como project, Paz carries a footballing identity that is entirely European in shape yet unmistakably Argentine in soul.

His 2025-26 Serie A campaign delivered 12 goals and seven assists — numbers that don't just impress, they reframe what we expect from a 21-year-old in Italy's top flight. That production didn't come from a peripheral role; Paz earned it by operating between the lines with the fearlessness of someone who has never been told to play safe. He moves on the half-turn, demands the ball under pressure — his maturity in tight spaces is what made Lionel Scaloni take notice, handing him his international debut against Bolivia in World Cup qualifying, where he immediately assisted Messi in a 6-0 rout.

The fitness alarm bells were ringing just thirteen days ago — Paz was reportedly undergoing specialized knee rehabilitation before Argentina's opener. He sacrificed playing Como's season finale to protect his body for this tournament. That decision tells you everything about the gravity he now carries within Scaloni's plans.

Nico Paz — 2025/26 Serie A

While Paz arrives with the glow of a breakout season, Thiago Almada carries something different — the quiet confidence of a man who has already felt a World Cup winner's medal. In Qatar 2022, he entered for seven minutes against Poland in the group stage, a cameo that barely registered at the time. Atlético Madrid paid 40 million euros to sign him last summer, and for good reason: Almada's game is built around deception.

His profile is that of the modern mezzala-winger hybrid — a right-footed left-sided attacker who cuts infield, breaks lines with short dribbles and pops into pockets of space that conventional wingers don't see. Scaloni experimented with Almada as a wing-back in three-back systems during recent training sessions, underlining just how tactically adaptable the 25-year-old has become under Diego Simeone's demanding regime at Atlético. In Argentina's confirmed training group for the Algeria opener, Almada was one of the ten outfield players Scaloni selected — a clear indicator of his starting status.

The burning question isn't whether Almada starts. It's whether he can deliver the decisive moment — the kind Paz hasn't yet been asked to produce.

Argentina's tactical identity under Scaloni is built on controlled chaos. The formation shifts fluidly — a 4-3-3 in possession, a 4-4-2 out of it, and now a 3-5-2 variant being trialled in training. What makes Paz and Almada so valuable to that system is precisely that they are not interchangeable. Paz is the between-the-lines creator, the man who breaks the press with a single turn and unlocks the final third with one diagonal pass. Almada is the space-invader — rapid, direct, disruptive on the left channel.

Together, flanking Messi and Lautaro Martínez, they represent something Argentina hasn't deployed since the 2022 final: genuine unpredictability from wide areas. Algeria, who arrive with Mahrez as their main threat and a 4-2-3-1 designed to absorb pressure and counter, will face an attacking shape they simply haven't encountered before.

Argentina topped CONMEBOL qualifying with 38 points — nine more than any other side — and a +21 goal difference. They arrive in Kansas City on a five-game winning streak in friendlies. The platform is built. The question now falls to two young men at the beginning of their biggest chapters.

Key Numbers / Quick Reference

Scaloni has always trusted the moment over the reputation. He handed Messi the captain's armband and rebuilt a generation around him. Now, with the greatest chapter of that story in its closing acts, he is quietly opening the next one. Paz and Almada aren't just squad depth — they are the evidence that Argentina's conveyor belt doesn't stop. It just gets more interesting.