Football
“Messi deserves Argentina respect”
After the early summer exit of Argentina at the world cup, fans all over the world were thrown into confusion with the looming retirement of one of the greatest of all time in football, Lionel Messi.
Having recorded so many successes at club level, the only missing trophy in the cabinet of the five time ballon d’or winner is the most coveted World Cup trophy.
La Albiceleste progressed into the round of 16 in a nervy win against Nigeria courtesy of Marcos Rojo screamer against the African champions and meet with Euro 2016 finalist but were dispatched to progress onto the next round.
The Argentina Football Association (AFA) is looking for a full-time replacement for Jorge Sampaoli, who was sacked shortly after Argentina’s 4-3 round-of-16 defeat in Russia to France, who went on to win the World Cup due to the team poor performance.
Former Argentina internationals Scaloni and Pablo Aimar were chosen as the coaches to guide the national team for next month’s friendlies against Guatemala and Colombia.
Lionel Scaloni has yet to speak to Lionel Messi since being appointed as interim coach of Argentina last week but says the Barcelona superstar will be treated “with the respect he deserves.”
The pair will have to provide a squad list by Aug. 19, with Albiceleste captain Messi expected to be given time off from the national team until 2019 after this summer’s early exit at the World Cup.
“We don’t have the squad list made, not even a small percentage of it,” Scaloni said. “I don’t think this is the time to call Lionel [Messi].
“Once we have to name the squad, we will see what we do. I honestly know him [Messi] well and I’m not worried about having to talk to him. We want to treat him in a way that he truly knows that there is respect there and that we are most certainly going to treat him as he deserves. That, he’s the most important person to us all.”
Messi has not addressed his future with Argentina but had said before the tournament began that his team would need to win “now or never.”
Argentina travel to the United States and take on Guatemala in Los Angeles on Sep. 7 before facing Colombia five days later in New Jersey.
