May 28, 2002

NARAHA, Japan (Reuters) - Argentina midfielder Ariel Ortega has done almost everything a player dreams of by winning domestic and international club titles and featuring in the World Cup where he is about to turn out for the third time at only 27.

A gifted ball player, dubbed the new Maradona when he broke onto the international stage as a teenager, he is nevertheless in awe of 35-year-old national team mate Claudio Caniggia, a direct rival for a place in Argentina's World Cup team.

"In 1990, I watched the World Cup on television and Caniggia scored a couple of very important goals and I went out onto the street to celebrate and now I've got him as a team mate and that's something incredible," Ortega said.

"I've always liked how Caniggia plays, his speed, I love it all, when he runs he looks like he's in the air, it's incredible," said Ortega, who made his World Cup debut in the United States in 1994 alongside Caniggia and Diego Maradona.

Maradona and Caniggia inspired Argentina, then the defending champions, to their second consecutive World Cup final in Italy in 1990 where they lost to West Germany, the winger of the flowing blond locks scoring key goals versus Brazil and Italy on the way.

COMPETITION

Ortega's admiration for Caniggia should help him overcome any disappointment if the veteran winger manages to steal his place in Argentina's side during the tournament.

But Caniggia, having been rescued from a six-year international exile for his third World Cup, could miss out altogether because of injury.

Ortega appears to be facing stronger competition from Gustavo Lopez in a set-up in which he has to adhere to tactical orders.

"I don't think my game has changed much (since France '98 under Daniel Passarella), simply the position in which I play," Ortega, who has amassed 81 caps, said at Argentina's World Cup bunker on Japan's Pacific coast north of Tokyo.

"In the (coach Marcelo) Bielsa era I've played on the right in all the matches I've been picked for. In the other World Cups I played more as a link man.

"I'm free to roam across the front of the attack but Marcelo asks me to stick more to the right," said Ortega, who wears the Argentina number 10 shirt made famous by Maradona.

Ortega impressed with his skill as a 20-year-old in the 1994 finals, but Argentina failed to get beyond the quarter-finals in France four years ago, when he was sent off in their defeat to the Netherlands. He will be looking to make amends in Japan.