The Argentine player Lionel Messi revealed in an interview published this Thursday by Star + that the Qatar 2022 World Cup will “surely” be his last participation in the competition that faces the best teams in the world.
“It’s my last World Cup, for sure,” he began, guaranteeing, even so, that he is physically well, because he has had “a very good preseason this year, unlike what happened last year.” For the Argentine, the preseason “was essential to start the season in a different way and arrive with a great mentality and more enthusiasm.”
In a preview of what could be the World Cup in Qatar, Lionel Messi believes that winning in the first game, against Saudi Arabia, is fundamental, but he assures that “it will not be easy”. “In the last World Cup we thought it would be easy and that we would be first in the group, but it was not like that,” he said, recalling the participation of the Argentines in the 2018 Russia tournament.
The conquest of the Copa América by Argentina in 2021 was also addressed by the Paris Saint-Germain player. “I couldn’t believe it and I still can’t explain what I felt. It was essential for me to win something for the national team, otherwise they would always remember me for the lost finals,” he revealed.
About the future after finishing his football career, Messi is blunt: “I don’t want to be a coach.” Still, he remembers the words of his former professional colleague, Zinedine Zidane, who said the same thing, but ended up following that path and becoming champion of the Champions League.
“I really like sports management, the task of putting together a team and following a coach, but I’m still not 100% sure about that,” he concluded.
Lionel Messi adds, so far, 164 games with the Argentine team. Since his debut with the albiceleste shirt, in 2005, the number 10 has scored 90 goals and 51 assists and participated in the 2006 (Germany), 2010 (South Africa), 2014 (Brazil) and 2018 (Russia) championships for the fifth participation in the tournament, in Qatar.
Source: TSF
