Messi Hints At Retirement After World Cup
Argentina captain, Lionel Messi has dropped a hint that could suggest he would be retiring after this summer's World Cup in Russia.
The former World footballer of the year briefly left the international scene in 2016 after two successive losses in the Copa America To Chile which came after the 2014 loss to Germany at the World Cup final.
Messi believes these losses have been undervalued by the Argentine press, stating that it is not easy to reach three finals, although, recognises the need to go a step further.
On his future with the National team, he said "I don't know how long I'll stay, it depends on how far we go at the World Cup."
The Barcelona forward had long been criticised for his performances with Argentina, compared to his play at Barcelona but a host of critics agree that he doesn't get the kind of service he gets at Barcelona, at Argentina.
Messi will be leading his country to claim a fifth World Cup this summer when they kick off their campaign against Iceland on the 16th of June and end the group stage with a clash against perennial foes, Nigeria on the 26th of June.
dude has sooo much money it has to be hard as fuck to stay motivated to play at that level year after year
You and I know he gives his all. The players around him do not just live up to his calibre.
that's an easy excuse though.
Real greatness is managing to do a lot with little, and Argentina namewise has some of the best players on the planet, they just can't play together to save their lives.
Salah and Bale are real examples of players not being able to live up to their calibre, Egypt and Wales are basically them +10 ok players.
If Messi never wins he would go down on history as the best argentinian player to fail to live up to his country's expectations, and that pressure is what made him "retire" after the Copa America final.
Hmmmm.. Well said.
If I may ask, in your own opinion.. Would you say Messi has failed when it comes to his country side?
yeah. even if he has reached a couple of finals. People love to say Messi is the greatest football player ever (to me that's a gross exageration), and still when it comes to it, when it's time for the final push...he falls short.
And it's not even completely his fault.
Argentina, even though it has an incredible pool of high quality players, use that "greatest player ever" bullcrap, to be over reliant on him, so they will go out of their way to pass the ball to Messi and depend on Messi, instead of the other players they have, so they are not a real team. just a bunch of disorganized players hoping Messi does something, because that's what they are told by the manager.
I think I agree with you with Argentina's over-dependence on Messi.
For him being referred to as GOAT... Well, I think that boils down to his natural talents, the records he's broken and those he's set. Not just that, the manner with which he does these things. It might take generations before we see another talent like him. Yeah, the only blemish is a major title with his Country. Well, I guess that's not about to end.
Pele is still better than him,
grace?, check
talent?, check
titles in his league?, you bet
an absurd amount of goals?, so he says...
world cups, only 3, but you know, still more than 0
the one sin Pele commited that is being used against him nowadays, is the fact that he isn't doing it right now so people can say "Messi is the best because I saw him doing it, while Pele is like...super old"
Smiles... You've actually hit a whole lot of point 👏
One man can't alone lead an entire team to a win. I have read somewhere in interviews of some of his teammates that Messi makes things easy on the pitch. I m worried when i read such stuffs. Like well, if there is no mess, we are all fucked !!!
Exactly the point I'm trying to drive at. It's more like Messi is their spine. Look at the friendly game against Nigeria which they lost 4-2, they were just like toothless dogs but when Messi returned, it was a different entirely.