CONMEBOL has officially announced that the 2030 FIFA World Cup will begin with matches in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. The Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires, Argentina, will serve as one of the three opening venues, alongside Uruguay’s Centenario Stadium and Paraguay’s Osvaldo Domínguez Dibb Stadium.

After these matches, the tournament will continue in Europe and Africa. Most of the games will take place in Spain, with additional matches in Portugal and Morocco.

In a separate announcement, FIFA confirmed that the 2034 World Cup will be held in Saudi Arabia. The last time a World Cup was played in Asia was in 2022, when Argentina won the title.

The 2030 World Cup marks the centennial celebration of the first tournament, which was held in Uruguay in 1930.

Speaking with Diario AS, Alexis Mac Allister commented on the impact of the World Cup in Qatar on his career and his role in the Argentine team, his admiration for Lionel Messi as both a player and a person, and his hopes for Messi to participate in the 2026 World Cup.

Reflecting on his journey with the national team, Mac Allister said:
“The World Cup in Qatar gave me a place in this team. I feel comfortable with the style of play that has always been a characteristic of Argentina. That is, always trying to keep the ball as much as possible and connect through passing. My role may be a little different, as sometimes I am defensive and other times offensive, but I am proud of what I have achieved. Winning a World Cup is the best.”

Speaking about Lionel Messi’s influence on the team and his personal experience, he shared:
“Leo is everything. For my generation and for those of us who have shared a dressing room with him, he is everything. He shows in every match, training session or in a chat that he is a top person and player. It makes me happy to share a dressing room with Messi and to be able to say that I have played with the best of all time.”

When asked about Messi’s potential participation in the next World Cup, he expressed optimism:
“I hope so. I think so. There’s a year and a half left to go until the World Cup, and that’s nothing. He looks happy, and although I don’t know what will happen with his future, it seems like he’s going to stay with Inter Miami… I hope he can make it because he’s the player who makes the difference.”

In an interview with Argentine journalist Juan Pablo Varsky for Clank Media, Alejandro “Papu” Gómez spoke for the first time about the doping case that sidelined him for two years. He revealed that he found out about the positive test just two days before the World Cup final against France, a revelation he chose to keep to himself at the time.

The former Sevilla player also reflected on the end of his career but avoided addressing the curious circumstances surrounding his departure from Lionel Scaloni’s squad.

“I received an email two days before the final (against France) informing me I had tested positive. Getting news like that before the World Cup final is horrible. I got sick during those two days, had a fever—my immune system probably took a hit. I was completely down. Imagine celebrating but constantly thinking about what was going to happen.

“I didn’t want to tell anyone because I didn’t want the team to focus on anything other than playing the World Cup final. It felt selfish to burden the guys with such bad news right before such an important match, so I decided to keep it to myself until after the game.”

Papu Gómez tested positive in a routine UEFA anti-doping control in mid-November 2022 while still playing for Sevilla, just before the Qatar World Cup. However, the news didn’t come to light until almost a year later, when he was already at Monza, where he only managed to play two matches.

He was sanctioned for “gross negligence” after consuming terbutaline, a substance banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), although it does not enhance performance. A day after the news broke, the player issued a statement on social media explaining that he had accidentally taken his young son’s cough syrup.

Gómez also shared how his Argentina teammates reacted to the news: “When you hear something like that, there’s not much to say. You just go, ‘What a mess. Stay calm, it’ll work out,’ normal things. You can’t say much more. Afterward, we flew to Argentina, a 30-hour trip, with celebrations and chaos—everything went back to normal, and everyone moved on with their lives.”

“They suspended me from all sports-related activities, including coaching, management, everything,” Gómez explained to Clank Media. With the intention of passing the time more quickly, he tried enrolling in a coaching course but was also denied. “That hit me hard, but it’s part of what I’m going through,” he admitted.

The former Atalanta player also opened up about the emotional process of saying goodbye to the character that had defined him as a World Cup champion:

“Accepting that the character might be coming to an end… I’m just an ordinary person, a family man, and maybe ‘Papu Gómez’ is ceasing to exist—or will cease to exist.”

“I’ve been working on that, on dialing back the ego a bit. Trying to live not as the character, but as Alejandro, to find balance. As a young player, you build this character, this ego, and people put you on a pedestal. Now, going from being a World Cup champion to not getting calls anymore, disappearing from the spotlight, or not playing at all—you have to learn to live with that.”

When asked about his departure from the Argentina national team, Gómez chose instead to highlight his final triumph: winning the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

“I’ll always treasure the entire journey, from the day we arrived in Qatar to living the dream of playing in a World Cup—that’s the ultimate. And everything we went through to reach that final day, which was the goal.”