Lionel Messi spoke with journalist Sebastián Vignolo from ESPN Argentina and commented on the 2022 World Cup, his future with the national team and his career.

Messi talking about the World Cup trophy:

“I had not seen it and the first time I saw it, there was a light on it, it shone… It was impressive. It was like “that’s it”. She was beautiful, yes.”

Messi talking about Argentina’s journey to become World Cup champions:

“The planets aligned, yes. Before the World Cup, Gio (Lo Celso), who was a fundamental player, who was playing every match, got injured and Enzo (Fernández) ended up coming in. He had no matches with the national team. He came in at the last minute and ripped it up.

“The same thing happened with Lea Paredes, who was playing, got to the World Cup and didn’t play. Alexis (Mac Allister) came in and it was the same thing that happened with Enzo. Lauti’s ankle wasn’t well, Julián (Álvarez) came on and it was crazy.”

On his duel against Robert Lewandowski in the match vs. Poland:
“Lewandowski’s statements bothered me because when I won the Ballon d’Or, I said what I felt, but for him to speak in that way bothered me. I ignored him during the game because it was him and I was angry and thought he shouldn’t have said what he said. I was very angry. If I was deliberately dribbling because it was him? Yes. After that, we met and talked and agreed that it was a misunderstanding. Then he went to Barcelona, and we talked about many things: the club, the city and everything.”

On his football career so far:

“There are few players who can say they achieved everything and thank God I am one of them.”

About his chances of playing the 2026 World Cup:

“I haven’t thought about the World Cup yet and I can’t say that I won’t be there too because anything can happen later. Due to age and situations, the most normal thing is that I will not be there, but we will see what happens. Maybe the Copa América will go well and everything will be given for us to continue, or maybe not. The truth is that I can’t say the answer now, time will tell, it is difficult, but we’ll see.”

The Argentina U17 team lost 3-0 vs. Mali U17 in the 3rd place match of the Indonesia World Cup.

It was not the best night for Argentina as Mali outplayed them from beginning to end. The African team had a total of 33 shots, 15 of those on target, while Argentina only had 8 shots, just 4 of those on target.

Argentina’s man of the match was without a doubt our goalkeeper Jeremías Florentín. Despite receiving three goals, he completed 12 saves and had a SofaScore rating of 8.5. Florentín did not have a good match in the semifinals against Germany and received a lot of criticism on his social media. Because of that, he decided to block all the comments on his Instagram, which is something a 17-year-old shouldn’t have to deal with.

The Albiceleste U-17 team coached by Diego Placente and led in the field by Claudio Echeverry, ends the World Cup in the 4th position.