Lionel Messi comments on winning the Copa America and his injury

By
Roy Nemer
-
16

Lionel Messi commented on winning the Copa America and his injury.

Messi was substituted out in the second half with an injury and was in tears. He would watch from the Argentina bench when Lautaro Martinez scored the goal in the 1-0 win vs. Colombia in the Copa America final.

He would celebrate with the team and lift the trophy with Ángel Di María and Nicolás Otamendi during the celebrations. Messi posted on Instagram, talking about the win and his injury. Here is what he had to say:

“The Copa America is over and the first thing I want is to thank everyone for the messages and the greetings. I am well, thank God and hopefully I can be back on the pitch again enjoying what I love doing most.

“I’m very happy, especially because we achieved the goal we had and Fideo (Ángel Di María) leaves us but with another Cup. The eldest ones, like him, Ota or myself, we live it with special excitement, with other team mates who already have several tournaments and add their experience as well. And with a little of young people who give their all in every ball. We are a team and also a family, a spectacular group.

“Thanks to everyone who was supporting us, this national team has a lot of present and a lot of future too. Let’s go Argentina!”


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16 Comments

  1. I know the Armani thing has been one of the most contentious and debated topics on this site, with every single Armani call up for the last four years or more resulting in automatic fury and outrage from so many people here (and at the very minimum, a bit of disbelief for me), to the point that I actually saw some pretty disgusting things said about him, like celebrating him getting sick or whatever or wishing him bad, but it just struck me yesterday that Armani is obviously some time of good luck charm, that he’s a “cabala” as they say in Argentina. I will be very alarmed if I don’t see him as a third goalkeeper in the next WC and Copa. I don’t care if he’s retired, gets his arms amputated, or ends up in a coma, just sign him up forever please 🤣

    • Good luck charm?? What are you talking about?? We were practically out from round of 16 in 2018 while he was starting against france we also failed to reach final at 2019 wc when he was a starter. He isn’t a lucky charm. More like emi Martinez is a lucky charm after he came to the side we didn’t lost any tournament. Though i don’t believe in lucky charm and all that. Its always hard work mixed with little help from luck but surely armani i don’t consider him as our lucky charm

  2. Wow, okay, that was crazy and I gave no comments yesterday in all the celebration, so back now. So happy and blessed to win another Copa, as defending champions, and add to our fourth trophy in this Scaloneta era. We are almost used to it at this point but I want to stress that having four trophies in a stretch during which we had only two losses is CRAZY. It’s crazy to think about the decades of hurt we had where we seemed fully cursed, like it was on purpose. Yet we were still in that limbo only three years and some days ago. Now we are serial winners and this national team easily is up there with some of the best in history. People talk about the Spain WC sandwiched in between two Euros, and well, we just did the same thing with Copa, and on top of that the unbeaten streak which fell only one game short of the record set by Italy (I know we are pampered with all the trophies and I may be demanding too much but that still itches me).

    About the game, I might watch it again soon and give a better, more sober analysis since the stress makes it a bit hard to focus very precisely, but I liked Mac Allister, Cuti, thought Licha was INCREDIBLE, and despite there having been a bit of a decline in RDP he pulled off another final like he did in 2021, even if you base it on his sheer activity and effort alone.

    Colombia did what I expected, they were not pushed around and easily beaten and fought tooth and nail. I knew this would happen because you have to put yourself into the mindset of what this must have been for them, a final after over 20 years as a country that’s only won one. No wonder they got to the final, I think they for sure can pull off some surprise in the WC against a big opponent.

    Going into the final, I was expecting another Di Maria goal because it felt like it was “written” or “meant to be” like the other two finals. But between him not scoring and Messi getting subbed off, I feel like there is something symbolic about it, especially considering Fideo retired from us today. The story of the Scaloneta is directly intertwined with the story of the “old guard” getting their redemption. I’m not a player worshiper and place my teams above all else as a fan, but the World Cup was as much about Messi as it was about Argentina, at least to the rest of the world. For actual Argentina fans, this logic applies to people like Fideo almost as much as it does to Messi. The 2021 Copa felt so perfect not only because of breaking the 28 year drought, but also because of seeing Messi, Fideo, Aguero, and Ota get what they deserved after so many years of struggle, the worst kind of struggle. How much worse can it get for a player, and country, to lose a world cup final and then two continental tournaments, all in three years? That is one of if not the worst feeling an athlete could probably possibly feel in their career. Because of that story it felt like Messi was meant to play out the whole game and Di Maria was meant to score, just like all the other finals of this cycle. But they didn’t. I remember saying to my family when Messi came off crying, that on paper, switching out Messi in a FINAL for Nico Gonzalez has to be one of the worst substitutions in the history of the game, but I actually felt that it might improve the game and that now the team is going to have to prove themselves that they can do it without the captain, and prove to the world that this is ARGENTINA. We don’t need Messi. Similarly, Di Maria didn’t score but 26 year old Lautaro Martinez did, after being ridiculed for his WC performances (though I’ve always given him credit for the undeniably decisive things he did that won us the trophy) and struggling to score for Argentina after that until this Copa. Argentina was able to do it without those two factors, so while it felt like all this success is sort of “meant to happen” for Messi, how do we know that more won’t come soon, without Messi or Fideo, and that this is all just for Argentina? Our younger players pulled it off with their captain crying on the bench in potentially his last tournament game, so this all feels symbolic for the future. Maybe I’m looking into this too much, and while it’s true we didn’t play this tournament anywhere near as well as in the WC, with all the young players reaching or in their prime, I don’t see why this is it or why we should be relegated to expecting this. We need people like Enzo to get back into their real form, we need the right replacements for the old guard (and with regards to Otamendi, we more than have it in Licha, that’s obviously been settled in this tournament and made us win it), make the right player selections, and hope that Scaloni can stay. No matter what team we have, the fact that we’ve been in a startling amount of finals, seven in only the last ten years, shows that Argentines are simply built different for this sport. We have a passion no player on the French or German teams would have for example. We’ve done this with goalkeepers that were lifetime bench warmers in their clubs, I mean, come on. Who says we can’t again in 2026? That’s why I think Di Maria is smart to retire today, why should we waste time playing him when he won’t play in the WC? That’s only a net negative. Very generous and thoughtful of him, as much as it’d be great to see some celebration for him in Argentina at a qualifier, I’m too obsessed with what’s coming to want us to compromise a second for some emotional thing. I may sound crazy to be talking about the WC already but I need to see us in the four star club. But even if it doesn’t happen, what we’ve seen with Scaloni was unimaginable after that second loss against Chile. Never forget where we were not that long ago. VAMOS ARGENTINA!!!!!!!

  3. NOW we turn our attention to the Olympics and the younger generation and how to incorporate them into the SNT.
    I lost count to how many times I said this, the highs are too high and the lows are too low around here. The hero today becomes tomorrow’s villain real quick. A player scores a goal and all of a sudden he’s instantly the future, hopefully this nonsense ends.

    Switching to the Boss of bosses, I don’t believe he’s been healthy in this COPA from the very start, something wasn’t right and add the shitty turf and the injury and it got bad real quick.
    ARGENTINA are once again CHAMPIONS, they lifted the trophy and confetti fell from the sky and the HATERS drowned in their own venom wherever they are in the world.

    Messi needs to be saved from himself, he has a lot of obligations in MLS, sponsors, businesses, something he didn’t have in Barcelona, at least not like this and he wants to honor those obligations which requires him to play.
    He needs to get fully healthy before he comes back to the NT and it’s not a crime to play the coming qualifiers without him.

    • You think like me 🤣🤣 as crazy as it sounds I’m already wondering about if we’ll get people like Enzo back in form, who will replace Messi and Fideo, whether or not we might see some drop in form in someone like RDP, Tagliafico, Rodriguez and Paredes based on age, what we should thus do about those LB and CM positions as those players age, whether or not it’s feasible to see Echeverri or Mastantuono be like Yamal 2024 or Mbappe 2018 despite their age, what will happen to Scaloni, and so much more. It all starts with these olympics I’m excited for. I know we are humble but this is like crack to us and we can’t stop.

      • I’m really bullish about Enzo getting back in form.

        A replacement for Messi or ADM is highly unlikely. i wouldnt set those expectations. We have some great options but they’ll bring a different quality and contribution.

  4. some match reflections:

    i think julian and lautaro could be played together in some way since they kind of make up for each others faults, i was thinking 4312 but it will under utilize our faster players and i do not want ot rely on tagliafico and molina/montiel stepping up. we NEED wingers, another reason why di maria and a younger messi are so sorely missed

    last night montiel especially left out a HUGE gap trying to attack too much and he let Mojica(their LB not even winger) through WAYYYYY too many times and that forced Cuti to come out and press unnecessarily, molina came on and continued to do the same thing

    de paul is a bit of a case, he really shines after half time because thats were his work rate stays constant and other players get tired. he also gets the brunt of fouls for us and it would make more sense to start paredes(de paul moves up) or lo celso(de paul stays back) alongside him for some balance as he can adjust accordingly. of course, this isn’t a FIFA game so we can still end up in a similar situation as last night regardless. essentially, I think we should try to avoid having late winners, we almost had 2 penalty shootouts which is not a good look for world up champions.

    Messi, can’t lie he is our greatest ever player but he seems very injury prone since his move to Miami. 3 injuries and seems like he has not gotten a chance to rest as it is constant activity for him, hope he can recover over the break but we have younger lads with less skill but more energy to swap him out. the current state of the game favors those who can output the most energy –literally survival of the fittest.

    cuti and lisandro, great duo and last night they both had some immense presence, besides de paul those two were the most vocal members. constantly communicating, they are captain material imo.

    other than that i think we had a rather lackluster game but we are reigning champions still 🙂

      • the camera showed argentinian fans chanting when it happened i remember, but it wouldnt be surprising if the entire stadium started chanting as a result. argentinan fans in endearment and colombians in hate lol, either way its was messi’s moment

  5. “Lets be real, you have been wishing “messi out” for the past 6 years. This isn’t anything new.” Well well choripan

    That isn’t true however I will clarify. back in march 2019
    When Valenzuela beat us 3-1 for friendly March yes I have messi must go which was out of frustration but reality I love Messi as proud Argentina nt fan he carried Argentina nt single handly until new guard came.
    One of the happiest time in my life was when I saw messi left copa and world Cup with Argentina I was really happy for him , but as I said before I was supporting arg before messi came and I was one of the first ones was hoping that he chooses Argentina over Spain thanks to God it happened to be that way, when comes to Argentina nt and messi I will chose Argentina nt over messi or any player but again if you are true Argentina fan you have to love messi which is why I like him because we can’t separate messi from Argentina I will forever grateful for what he has done for Argentina and football general. All I was saying was it’s good time for him to go because his body won’t him and reality is Argentina will continue that may world cup in 2026 or wait and another 30 years God knows

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