Argentina striker Lionel Messi’s future with the national team remains unclear according to current interim manager Lionel Scaloni.
Messi is a five-time Ballon d’Or winner, four-time European cup winner and nine-time Spanish title winner with an absolutely unbelievable goalscoring record at the highest level. In 463 appearances at club level with Barcelona, the diminutive magician has scored 501 goals and earned universal acclaim for his mastery of the game.
The Argentine superstar is quite possibly the best player of all time, with his unmatched dribbling ability and incredible vision baffling defences across Europe for well over a decade. However, on the international stage, Messi has endured an altogether more difficult experience.
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Despite also having very impressive stats for his country – 65 goals in 128 games – Messi has often been the fall-guy for Argentina’s most recent failures at major tournaments. The team has always depended on him as their talismanic leader and if he ever fails to deliver the goods, then the whole group fails as a collective.
This was especially the case in Russia this summer at the latest World Cup, where Argentina suffered a last-16 exit at the hands of eventual winners France and Messi was vilified in the national press in his homeland for failing to rise to the occasion.
According to The Guardian, current interim boss, Lionel Scaloni does not know if the 31-year-old will play for his country again, having already retired from international duty once after a disappointing Copa America tournament in 2016.
Messi has been left out of Argentina’s squad for upcoming friendlies and as per The Guardian, Scaloni told reporters: “Honestly, we have not spoken about what will happen in the future.
“We all know what he represents for us and we shall see what happens. I have a good relationship with him, it was a good chat that we had and we were very clear. He will not be in this call-up and in the future, we shall see.”
Should the World’s most gifted player choose to resign in the coming months it would mean he ends his international career without a World Cup winners medal, which some experts believe would go against him in terms of being remembered as history’s greatest ever footballer.