Lionel Messi will turn 35 during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, so there’s a concern that this summer’s edition in Russia could be the Barcelona talisman’s final chance to clinch honours on football’s biggest stage.
The fleet-footed forward’s international career has been tainted by heartache. The Albiceleste lost in extra-time to Germany in the final of the previous World Cup in 2014, and the two following summers each yielded runner-up finishes at the Copa America via painful penalty-shootout defeats to Chile.
The second of those losses led Messi to emotionally declare he was “done playing with the national team,” but he has since silenced some critics in his homeland by dragging Argentina to Russia. Now, he aims to inspire an underperforming generation of players to the country’s first World Cup title since 1986.
Related: How overburdened Messi bailed out lacklustre Argentina
“It’s just the feeling that this group of players has. It seems that having reached three straight finals didn’t mean anything. Obviously, we depend on results and unfortunately, we reached three finals and we didn’t win them,” Messi told La Cornisa TV, with translation from ESPN’s Adriana Garcia.
“A lot …read more