Lionel Messi spoke about his Argentina future and the World Cup while also commenting on the decision to join Inter Miami.

Messi gave an interview with TV Pública where he spoke about his comments regarding not playing at the next World Cup and winning the 2022 World Cup. Here is what he had to say:

“I suffered a lot. I had very hard times. I always had the desire to achieve something with the national team. I had it in my head that I was going to achieve it. It couldn’t be that I won everything at club level and that if I didn’t win with the national team, I would be missing something.

“I enjoyed the World Cup very much, in a way that had never happened to me before. I knew it could be the last one. To be honest. if I wasn’t a world champion, I would not be with the national team anymore.

“Today, being a World champion, I can’t leave the national team and I have to enjoy all of this. It was as if I was enjoying it and I had a lot of peace of mind and confidence in the group.

“What I said about the World Cup is normal. For my age and for the time, it’s difficult for it to happen. I enjoy the moment, the day to day, being here. Now come the qualifiers, then the Copa America. It is going too far to think about the World Cup. We have to enjoy what we have achieved and every moment we are living.

“I try to enjoy the day to day, which last year was hard for me. I was not as I would have liked to have been. And to think about what is coming. A new cycle is starting, we are about to play in the qualifiers. We can’t just focus on what we have achieved, we have to think about what is coming and enjoy.”

On moving to Inter Miami in the MLS:

“At first, the idea was different. We are happy with the decision we took, prepared. We are looking forward to the new challenge, the new change. It was an important step but at the same time we were aware of what it meant.”

The World Cup winner scored for Argentina in less than a minute and a half against Australia in the 2-0 win on Thursday.