Reasons Rico Ceper Doubts Argentina Can Win Again in the 2026 World Cup

The reason Rico supports Argentina is closely tied to his admiration for Lionel Messi. As a Barcelona fan, he admits to having followed the superstar's career journey since the beginning of his emergence.

"Still the same, if not Argentina, then Spain. I support Argentina because of Messi's early emergence when he was at the La Masia academy wearing number 30, before he wore number 10. I have idolized him for a long time as a Barcelonista," he said.

Although he supports these two major teams, Rico also sees potential surprises from teams that are not heavily favored. He predicts that several other strong countries, as well as teams from Asia, could provide fierce competition and create new history as dark horses.

"Argentina is what we appreciate besides Spain, which is stable, plus dark horses like France or Japan, hopefully they will create surprises," said the 50-year-old man.

Interestingly, when asked about Argentina's chances of retaining the world champion title, Rico expressed his doubts. He believes it is very difficult for a national team to achieve consecutive successes on the highly competitive world football stage.

"As for back-to-back, there is none, but if we look at the Indonesian League, (Persib) Bandung can do back-to-back or even three-peat. We don’t know, just watch the development of football, it’s quite good," he said.

Rico hopes that the development of world football continues to show a positive trend even though the global situation is uncertain. For him, surprises on the green field are always the most awaited by football lovers.

"The World Cup always gives birth to new stories and histories. And we will see what history will be created later," concluded Rico Ceper.