Star forward Lionel Messi has announced his return to Argentina’s national team for their World Cup qualifiers in September, ending his short-lived retirement from global football.
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The Barcelona forward, announced his retirement from worldwide football, after they lost the 2016 Copa America to Chile.
It became practically an affair of state when Argentina´s President Mauricio Macri called on him to stay. They lost to Brazil in the 2007 Copa America final and to Germany in extra time in the 2014 World Cup final in Brazil. “But I love my shirt and my country too much”, he continued.
Argentina are third in the 10-nation South American qualifying group with 11 points from six matches, two behind Uruguay and Ecuador.
And after talking with the captain in the Catalan capital, Bauza has included him in a list of 27 players to take on Uruguay and Venezuela in the next World Cup qualifiers.
However, the 29-year-old Barcelona talisman has since met with new Argentina boss Edgardo Bauza and will now reverse his decision to retire.
“I worked hard. A title for the national team is that what I wanted the most”.
In a statement on Friday, Messi said: “I don’t want to cause any harm, I’ve always tried to do the exact opposite and help out in whatever way possible”.
But Messi has only one major honor to his name with his national team, winning gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
“I send my thanks to all of those who want me to continue playing for Argentina”. His shortage of global silverware is arguably the one thing that stops him definitively eclipsing Argentina´s World Cup-winning soccer legend Diego Maradona.
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Messi, who is Argentina’s all-time leading scorer with 55 goals in 113 appearances, made references to problems within the Argentine Football Association (AFA) a few days before the Copa America final.
