I don't see it honestly, it feels they will be like the pre-Messi years. There will be soe stars but they will be more of pretenders than contenders.
The newer generations are behind the Spanish, French and even Brazilian in terms of talents alone. Scalone will be already at 8 years point by the end of 2026 WC, a decline and losing the team is bound to happen soon and there is no guarantees they will have a great coach to overcome the talent disparity.
I guess it depends on what you mean by pretenders. Of course this is still an incredibly early prediction, but as of currently at this moment in predicting the WC2030, I would be disappointed if the national team don't reach the Semis.
I only see Spain (still have them as absolute favorites to win the WC2030) and possibly Portugal that would have better proven players by the time the WC2030 comes along. Issue with both France and Brazil are the CM talents. Kone from France and Andrey Santos from Brazil are ones that I do rate, but they both both depth and don't have a controller player atm. Both of course, talents can pop up.
Scaloni has already rebuilt the team back in 2019, he's in the process of prepping for the rebuild right now with the likes of Paz and Mastantuono. I have confidence in Scaloni (if he decides to stay after the WC26) that he will make the team competitive. If he does decide to leave, I have trust in Placente who is doing well at the U-20 teams
