Little clown prince is growing up and living up to the Maradona expectations

Argentina have a new icon in the mould of the great Diego. Andrew Longmore says the path to greatness of the prodigal playmaker Pablo Aimar has been neatly laid

Group F, Sven Goran Eriksson said recently, was no place for choirboys. Clearly, the England coach was not thinking of Pablo Aimar, who needs only a cassock and hymn book to complete the impersonation. In a side as rugged as Argentina, Aimar's boyish face stands out like an orphan among thieves, yet his arrival in Europe two years ago was blessed by Diego, the patron saint of Argentinian No 10s.

"Pablo is the only current footballer I'd pay to watch," Maradona said at the time of Aimar's £13 million transfer to Valencia. "He's been the best player in Argentina for the last couple of years and he's a great kid. The Valencia fans will love him." They do, though the relationship has only been fully consummated this season with the return of the Spanish league title to La Mestella for the first time in 31 years. Aimar's free-kick, deflected into his own net by a fellow Argentinian, the infamous Aldo Duscher, brought Valencia a critical victory over fellow challengers Deportivo La Coruña in the closing stages of a pulsating season.

But, for a month or two, the Little Clown, as he was nicknamed at River Plate, was unstoppable, not only transforming the dour Valencia of early season into a counterattacking force but playing his way firmly into the thoughts of Marcelo Bielsa, the brooding, eccentric coach of the World Cup co-favourites.

Aimar is 22 and looks younger. He has grown up physically over the past year, but had a taste of the attentions he might expect over the coming month when an ugly tackle by Jens Jeremies in a recent warm-up game against Germany forced his departure before half-time, though not before he had exacted retribution of a sort by clattering Michael Ballack. His scampering presence behind the front two strikers had already threatened to unhinge the German back-line, but Aimar will face stern competition for the most coveted position in the Argentinian side from the mercurial 28-year-old Ariel Ortega, Aimar's predecessor at River Plate and Valencia and the previous elected successor to the mantle of Maradona.

Though their career patterns are uncannily similar, their backgrounds could not be more different. Ortega was brought up in poverty in the north, far from the game's traditional heartlands, and is an introvert. Football and cumbia, a complex form of South American dance music, are his main means of expression. Aimar comes from the fertile footballing fields of Cordoba, Argentina's second city, and is the son of Ricardo Aimar, who played for Newell's Old Boys and Belgrano. His second name, Cesar, is a tribute to Cesar Luis Menotti, coach of the victorious World Cup winning side of 1978, and his mentor at River Plate was Daniel Passarella, the captain of Menotti's side, while Mario Kempes, the gifted striker, also made the journey to Valencia 20 years before. Aimar's path to greatness has been neatly laid.

Both began their junior careers with River Plate, Aimar becoming part of the national youth side who won the world championships in 1997 – and the fair play award – and graduating to full honours against Bolivia in June 2000. Both moved to Valencia, and when Ortega, who drifted from southern Spain to Parma and Sampdoria in Italy, returned home on loan to River Plate, he succeeded the departing Aimar. Hailed, with Juan Sebastian Veron, as the creative force behind the 1998 Argentinians, Ortega scored two brilliant goals against Jamaica, but departed in disgrace after being sent off in the quarter-final against Holland. It is indicative of his nature that Ortega has flourished since returning to the colours of his youth. "I don't want people to look at me and say, 'He never realised his potential'," says Aimar. Subconsciously he might be thinking of Ortega.

It is a sobering thought for Eriksson as he absorbs the implications of Steven Gerrard's injury that his opposite number, Marcelo Bielsa, could contemplate leaving a player of Aimar's pedigree on the bench or a young striker of Javier Saviola's talent at home. The measure of Bielsa's conservatism is his decision to recall Claudio Caniggia at the age of 35, a throwback to the Maradona era, instead of gambling on Saviola or Juan Roman Riquelme of Boca Juniors, regarded by many as the most talented product of the youth system masterminded by Jose Luis Pekerman, Bielsa's assistant.

Argentina have put a premium on selectorial continuity over the past four years. Only two or three names will have changed from the line-up who began in St Etienne. German Burgos, the blues-singing goalkeeper, has replaced Carlos Roa, who has never recovered his place after taking a year's sabbatical for religious reasons, Nelson Vivas is injured and Hernan Crespo will probably start ahead of Gabriel Batistuta. Of the 16 Argentinian players used that tumultuous night, only three are not in the 2002 squad. Of the 14 used by England, only six – Seaman, Campbell, Southgate, Beckham, Scholes and Owen – will be in Japan.

"This Argentinian team are better equipped than four years ago to win the World Cup," says Juan Veron. "It will be almost the same squad and almost the same starting XI, except that nearly all the players have won individual honours with their clubs and have experience of big games."

A 1-0 victory over Germany in Stuttgart in an awesomely competitive "friendly" and a qualifying record of one defeat in 18 games, including 42 goals, is weighty evidence to support Argentina's elevation to favouritism alongside France. How strictly referees interpret the regulations laid down by Fifa, particularly those on diving, might determine which face of Argentinian football, the angelic or the dirty, is predominant in the East. Like all the best South American teams, this one can produce both.

Yet, for all the excellence of Walter Samuel, Argentina remain vulnerable in areas which coincide with English strengths, notably at set- pieces and in the air. At Anfield in the Champions' League, Emile Heskey ran Samuel so ragged that the muscular Roma centre-back ended the night swathed in bloodstained bandages. Gerrard's physicality and sweeping long passes will be sorely missed against Argentina, but Bielsa will be uncomfortably aware of the havoc caused by Owen's pace four years ago. "It's not like we are two nations who know nothing about each other," as Veron says. The exception could yet be Aimar, who has not been so well frisked. "Pablo could be the Owen of our World Cup," says Claudio Caniggia. Eriksson will sincerely hope not.

This game has previous

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