Fans should enjoy Messi while they can: Scaloni

Buenos Aires, Argentina | Xinhua | Argentina head coach Lionel Scaloni said Sunday that football fans should enjoy Lionel Messi while they can amid speculation that he could end his international career after this year’s World Cup.

The comments came less than two days after 34-year-old Messi admitted that football’s showpiece tournament in Qatar, to be played from November 21 to December 18, could mark his Argentina swansong.

“Messi will have to sit down as he has always done,” Scaloni told reporters. “Having said that, I’m not in his head to really know what he thinks.”

“You just have to enjoy him now because the rule of life says that at some point it (Messi’s retirement) will happen. It’s useless to think about what will happen after the World Cup.”

Scaloni made the comments ahead of Argentina’s clash against Ecuador in Guayaquil on Tuesday – the last match day of the South American zone World Cup qualifiers.

Argentina, who have already qualified, are second in the 10-team standings with 38 points from 16 matches, four points behind leaders Brazil.

*****

Xinhua