Riquelme on Argentina: "In football, you need to know how to pass the ball..."
Riquelme drew comparison with Iniesta: "He's only short and weighs 40 kilos. In Argentina's youth team, if you're six foot, you make the team even if you can't play..."
Riquelme was asked to give his opinion on Argentina's recent problems by ESPN and didn't hold back in his assessment. The former Villarreal and Barça player says physical attributes mean nothing if you haven't got the basics of the game and drew comparison with Andrés Iniesta.
Height doesn't come into it
“In football you need to be able to pass the ball well and strongly and know how to control it. If Iniesta didn’t know how to control the ball he wouldn’t be able to play because he’s about this tall – he’s short and weighs around 40 kilos – you could practically blow him over, imagine it. Iniesta’s the clearest example and you only have to go back five or six years with Argentina’s youth team to find players who are 5 foot 9, six foot and they can’t play… If you were six foot tall you would be first choice in the youth team – where would leave someone like Iniesta? He’d never get to play for Argentina’s youth team”.