ARGENTINA GREAT DIEGO Maradona has urged his compatriots to back off Lionel Messi in the wake of his decision to retire from international football.
Messi called it quits on the international scene after Argentina lost a third final in three years, going down to Chile 4-2 in a penalty shoot-out for the Copa America Centenario last Sunday.
It was the fourth time Messi has suffered a defeat the final of a major tournament, adding to the heartbreak of the 2007 and 2015 editions of the Copa, as well as the 2014 World Cup decider against Germany.
The decision brought many in the South American nation to tears, with several high-profile figures – including the country’s president Mauricio Macri – pleading with Messi to reconsider.
However Maradona – who won the World Cup with Argentina in 1986 – sounds like a man who believes that the Barca star will be back in his national strip, insisting pundits and critics should just leave Messi alone for the time being.
“Messi is telling us to stop busting his balls,” Maradona said in an interview with La Red yesterday.
With this Messi has told us ‘I am going on holidays, leave me alone and when you call me, I’ll think about it. I don’t want to talk about this anymore’. I think it’s great.
“These days everyone is a coach, everyone is a penalty-taker. No, it’s not like this.
“I see that people are meeting to talk about the subject, and I hear people who in their life have kicked one f**king ball and now they dare talk about football.
“Now when I see people talk about it, I change [the channel]. That’s it, it’s happened. We can’t go back.
“We have to construct a unified idea with Messi, but if he says no then we still have to put out a team on the pitch.”
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Maradona,legend of a player but what a looper
The same man that was criticising him
As a matter of interest, how often is the Copa America tournament held? I had always assumed that, like the Euros, it was held every 4 years between World Cups but your article said there was one last year, 2015. What’s the story?
It is every 4 years this year was a once off to celebrate the anniversary of the first one as far as I know
Ye one off to celebrate its 100 years
Thanks for the info guys :-)
He bottled it bigtime.
From this day forward he will be known as Missi (the footballer formerly known as Messi)
Shocking effort, Odhran
I thought it was good odhrán, not as good as mine but good effort all the same. Fair play
Odhran you make a very good point. He shall be known as Missi if he retires. Messi carries a lot of expectation when playing for Argentina and had not always being up to the job.
I would give you more green thumbs if I could. Good one.
Maradona was watching too much Goodfellas.
And eating too many goodfellas
Diego has a point, but he’s the manager who woefully misused messi in the 2010 World Cup.