Lionel Messi has spoken about the 2026 World Cup and playing with the Argentina national team.
Messi is presently with the Argentina national team training in Spain for their friendly match against Angola. The Argentine spoke in an interview with Sport where he commented on possibly returning to FC Barcelona. In the same interview, he spoke about possibly playing at the World Cup with Argentina. Here is what he had to say:
“It’s a special World Cup. Playing with the national team in important competitions is always special and even more after winning a World Cup.
“But as I told you, I don’t want to be a burden. I want to feel physically well, be sure that I can help the group and contribute things to the team.
“Our season here is different from Europe’s. We’ll have preseason in between, few matches before the World Cup and I’ll see day-by-day how I’m feeling physically, whether I’m in the condition I want to be in to participate.”
Calling Lisandro Martínez back to the team is a good sign that Scaloni knows Argentina doesn’t have a settled center-back pairing. Licha had a great Copa América and played really well with Cuti Romero.
The problem is fullbacks. Scaloni hasn’t tested enough in new players there, which is clearly our biggest weakness. Tagliafico is getting older, and there’s no true backup for him at left-back. Molina has been bang average under Simeone, and Montiel is inconsistent. There is no guarantee if Montiel can repeat his World Cup 2022 form, he was excellent in the final except for the unlucky handball.
Right now, Argentina is heading into the World Cup with no backup left-back and two right-backs who are declining. Foyth coming back from injury is a positive. If all our center-backs stay healthy, we’ll have Cuti, Licha, Balerdi, Foyth, Senesi, and Otamendi available. It will be tough to decide who gets left out, I hope it’s not Foyth, since he’s young, fast, and reliable and can also play as a RB. It should be between Senesi & Ballerdi!