Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero and Argentina's Debt to Colombia Coach Jose Pekerman

Friday's Copa America quarter-final between Argentina and Colombia will surely bring up some conflicting emotions for Jose Pekerman. The current Colombia boss has history in coaching his home nation, as well as a personal relationship with the vast majority of his opponents in the last eight, including megastars Lionel Messi and Javier Mascherano. 

But his effect on the team goes far deeper than that. To put it simply, the current Argentina squad perhaps would look extremely different if not for the influence and intelligence of the man who will now attempt to dump them out of the competition in Chile. 

The 65-year-old veteran is probably best known in world football for his stint in charge of the nation between 2004 and 2006. That team, led by attacking talents like Hernan Crespo, Juan Roman Riquelme and Carlos Tevez, was a cult favourite thanks to a 6-0 demolition of Serbia in the Germany World Cup—marked, of course, by a goal that needs no introduction—before missing out against the hosts in the quarters. 

Indeed, it is fitting that Albiceleste captain Messi will mark his 101st cap against the very same man who handed him his first, all the way back in 2005. That experience was admittedly a mixed one for La Pulga, sent off minutes after appearing off the bench, but it did not break Pekerman's faith in the teenage star.

A few months later the Barcelona promise was on the way to his first World Cup. 

The pair's relationship, however, went back even further than that abortive debut against Hungary. Perhaps the first sign that Messi was destined to be a world-beater came in the 2005 World Youth Championship, where the star took the competition's Golden Shoe with six goals and propelled Argentina to glory. Pekerman also deserves great credit for his influence; having started his international career with the youth divisions, perhaps no other coach has done as much to encourage continuity from junior to senior progress. 

The coach began his trade with the under-20s in 1994, under head coach Alfio Basile. There followed an unprecedented run of success, with World Youth Championship wins coming in 1995, 1997 and 2001. More importantly, he instilled a playing style and culture in his proteges that has stood the test of time and constant switches on the Argentina bench. 

"While titles were nice, Pekerman never lost sight of the principal aim of youth football - to mould both men and players," BBC Sport's Tim Vickery opined back in 2007. The writer describes how Pekerman insisted on playing an attractive, passing game with the kids, placing winning secondary to bringing through the stars of tomorrow.

For this plan to work, the youth teams had to therefore play the same game as those in the senior ranks. The fruits of this progression and commitment to development has not just paid dividends in titles for Argentina. 

Of the current squad, a huge percentage came through the ranks under Pekerman's watchful eye. Mascherano, Carlos Tevez and Pablo Zabaleta entered from the class of 2003; two years later, Messi, Sergio Aguero, Ezequiel Garay, Fernando Gago and Lucas Biglia joined the group to triumph in the Netherlands. 

Pekerman had left by 2007, but his influence had still not yet been squandered by those in charge of Argentinian football.

In Canada the under-20s were once again victorious under the watchful eye of Pekerman's former assistant Hugo Tocalli. Sergio Romero, Ever Banega and Angel Di Maria joined Aguero in celebrating that year, the last time the Albiceleste prevailed at the level in which no nation can boast a comparable record. 

Between 2003 and 2007, then, Pekerman in his role as Argentina general manager and later coach helped bring through 11 of the Argentina Copa America squad. Barring injuries, eight of those will start against their old mentor, with only Marcos Rojo, Nicolas Otamendi and Javier Pastore coming from outside that wonderful stable of talent. 

Unfortunately for observers of the Albiceleste, that productive assembly line has been all but destroyed since the current Colombia man left post-Germany 2006. Instead of prioritising the youth ranks, the U20 and U17 posts became the property of nepotistic choices and clueless yes men unwilling to confront the AFA as Pekerman did. 

The classes of 2009, 2011 and 2013 have failed to supply a single player for this Copa America. Generations that proved the likes of Messi, Mascherano and Aguero obviously do not emerge every year, but even so it is clear the talent that previously honed its trade in the youth ranks before jumping up a level is now stagnating. Just two of the current squad, Roberto Pereyra and Erik Lamela, are aged 25 or under. 

Just days before Argentina kicked off the Copa America, their Under-20s were bundled out of the World Cup without a single win. Under the clownish figure of former AFA president Julio Grondona's son Humberto, a side packed with talent was humiliated by Ghana, Austria and Panama.

Ross Setford/Associated Press

With the likes of Atletico Madrid's Angel Correa and River starlet Giovanni Simeone, there was plenty of attacking firepower. But despite the celebrations of the prior South American Championship win, it was clear that the class of 2015 were just a motley collection of individuals, with no coherent style or idea to draw back on when personal flair failed to do the job.

The comparison with the man hired by Humberto's father over two decades ago could not be more palpable. Pekerman coached the youngsters to develop them as players, and then to win; those in charge right now cannot achieve either of these elementary goals. 

Thanks to Pekerman's sterling work with Messi, Aguero and Co. Argentina's present is still solid. But without the studious coach's example in the youth ranks, some concern over a future without the current stars is more than valid.