The World Cup in Qatar will be the last World Cup of Lionel Messi’s career. The news was announced by the player himself in an interview with the Star + channel, where he assured that he is “very eager” to compete in the competition with the Argentine team.
“Is this my last World Cup? Yes of course. I feel good physically, I was able to have a very good preseason this year, unlike last year, because of everything that has happened. Last year I started training late and I played without rhythm with the season that was going on. I went to the national team and when I came back I got injured, I could never start”, said Messi, who this Wednesday faced Benfica at Luz with PSG.
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“I am counting down the days to the World Cup. The truth is that there is some anxiety, I want you to start now, there is some nervousness. I want it to start now and I think about what will happen, how it will go, because it will be the last. On the one hand, we are looking forward to it starting; on the other hand, there is that desire that everything goes well for us”, added the captain of the South American team.
Argentina arrives in Qatar after having won the last Copa América and going on a streak of almost 40 consecutive games without defeat. Even so, Messi does not consider the team as one of the favorites to win the World Cup. “We are going to arrive at a very good time, for everything that has happened. We are in a very strong group but in a World Cup anything can happen. Every match is tough, but that’s what makes a World Cup so special. The favorites are not always the ones that end up winning or going as expected. I don’t know if we are the great candidates but Argentina is always a candidate, because of its history and because of what it means, especially at the moment we are living. But we are not favourites, there are other teams that are up there”, concluded Messi, who turned 35 last June.
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The World Cup in Qatar will be the fifth in the career of the Argentine, who was in Germany 2006, South Africa 2010, Brazil 2014 (where he fell in the final against Germany) and Russia 2018. It should be remembered that this is not the first time that Messi addresses an eventual or future goodbye to the Argentine team: In 2016, after losing the second consecutive Copa América final against Chile and missing his penalty in the penalty shootout, he announced that he would not wear the national team shirt again. He ended up reversing the loss, being summoned again about two months later, and in July 2021 he managed to reach his first title for Argentina with the victory in the Copa América against Brazil.
Source: Observadora
