Sergio Batista has been appointed Argentina coach on a permanent basis, succeeding previous manager Diego Maradona.
Batista, 47, had been acting as caretaker manager following the departure of Maradona in July 2010.
A former Argentina international and teammate of Maradona, Batista has overseen three friendlies as interim coach, including a 4-1 victory over world champions Spain in Buenos Aires in September.
"The AFA (Argentina Football Association) executive committee has unanimously designated Mr Sergio Batista as the new coach of the Argentina football team along with his full staff," AFA spokesman Ernesto Cherquis Bialo said.
A former Argentina international youth coach, Batista led the country's Olympic team to a gold medal at the Beijing games in 2008.
"I'm very happy and I thank Julio (Grondona, AFA president) and the officials," Batista said.
"This is a big responsibility. I'm looking forward to carrying on working the way we've been doing and working towards our aims."
"This is the best for me. Now I'll think only of working hard."
"I had faith (in) myself. When you take up a coaching role at a team, you set yourself goals and the biggest one is the national team."
"Maybe I reached this quite early, but I don't want to waste this chance. The biggest goal is getting to the World Cup and winning it."
Maradona led Argentina to the FIFA World Cup quarter-finals earlier in the year - where they were defeated by Germany - but exited under a cloud despite being offered a contract extension.
He came to loggerheads with the AFA after refusing to change his preferred assistant managers, and promptly had the offer of a new deal withdrawn.
Batista's first match as full-time manager will be a friendly against arch-rivals Brazil in Qatar on November 17.