Argentina national team coach Diego Maradona wants his team to begin playing in the now and to forget about past triumphs of the La Albiceleste.

Recent teams have not emulated the successes of the 1978 and 1986 World Cup-winning sides and Maradona has urged his charges to step up and create new history.

"I want Argentina to believe in new heroes so that we don't stagnate watching what happened 24 years ago," Maradona, who captained the 1986 World Cup team, told reporters on Monday. "I want to renew the confidence in the Argentine football hero.

"I want something new. For too long, it's seemed that we are going to do it but we never end up winning the Cup.

"We don't want to keep repeating the hand of Maradona, Mario Kempes, those stories.

"I want us to talk about Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuain, Diego Milito, Martin Palermo, Javier Mascherano.

"I don't want them to forget our 1986 team, but I want Argentina to have new world champions.

"We have to go with the hunger a team needs to be world champions. We have the players to do it."