The five-time Ballon d’Or victor wowed the Camp Nou on Wednesday night with an outrageous overhead assist for Luis Suarez, a superb feint to score the second himself before adding another with a fantastic free-kick as Bauza watched from the stands.
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The forward, who plays for Barcelona, announced his retirement from the national team in June after Argentina was defeated by Chile in the final of the Copa América Centenario.
But Messi has only one major honor to his name with his national team, winning gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
“Many things went through my head on the day of the final and I thought seriously about leaving it but I love my country and this shirt too much”, he said in a statement released through his management company and tweeted by the Argentinian Football Association.
Messi and Argentina also lost to Chile in a penalty shootout in the final of last year’s Copa America. “The national team is over for me”.
Messi, who is Argentina’s all-time leading scorer with 55 goals in 113 appearances, made reference to federation problems a few days before the Copa final, saying the AFA, Argentine football’s governing body, was “a disaster” after the team suffered delayed flights and experienced problems finding opponents for training games. Even the legendary Diego Maradona urged the Barcelona superstar to reconsider his decision.
Messi was subsequently announced in Argentina’s squad for September’s World Cup 2018 qualifiers against Uruguay and Venezuela. Argentina is third in the South American qualifying group, behind Ecuador and leader Uruguay after six matches.
However, in a statement on Friday, Messi explained that he wanted to continue representing his country as he preferred “to help from within”.
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“I hope that we’ll be able to give them something to cheer about soon”, he said.
