Nicolás Otamendi
#19 · Defender · age 37
Confirmed final World Cup before international retirement
85
WC26 rating
- Recent form
- 60
- Career peak
- 66
- League level
- 79
- Competition pedigree
- 98
- International pedigree
- 100
- Longevity
- 73
Independent rating — league strength (Opta-anchored) × competition tier × position-normalized output. Not affiliated with EA or FIFA.
Career by season
Source: sofascore · fetched 2026-05-29
Otamendi’s role this tournament is part insurance, part dressing-room ballast. At 37 he won’t start unless one of the first-choice pair is unavailable, but his experience — and the fact that he has already won everything — gives Scaloni a calm voice in the squad’s veteran tier.
Expect him to feature in any dead-rubber group game and to be ready as cover through the knockouts.
Strengths
- Veteran reading of the game and defensive organisation
- Aerial duels in both boxes
- Leadership — the dressing-room voice alongside Messi
Recent form
Benfica first-choice through the 2025-26 Primeira Liga campaign; expected to be third-choice centre-back behind Romero and Lisandro.
He was the only player in Argentina's 2014 World Cup final squad still active when they won in 2022 — the longest gap between two finals for any Argentine.