Messi critic Maradona urges the Argentina captain to shelve retirement

After taking potshots at Messi, criticising him on the eve of the tournament for a perceived “lack of personality,” World Cup winner Diego Maradona has called on compatriot Lionel Messi not to abandon international football after the captain of the Argentina team announced his retirement from the national team after they faced defeat at the Copa America final.

At the wake of the events, Maradona was among many leading personalities to speak out in support of Messi, who appeared badly affected by the penalty shootout loss to Chile in New Jersey. According to The Times Of India, the 29-year-old football player, a multiple trophy winner with Barcelona, has now been part of four final defeats with the national team, three in the Copa America and at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

“Messi must carry on in the national team… because he still has a lot to give, because he’ll get to (2018 World Cup hosts) Russia with chances of being world champion,” the captain Argentina during its second World Cup triumph in 1986 was quoted as saying in the Argentine daily La Nacion on Monday. “He has to lean more on the lads who can help him take the team forward and less on those who say he should leave,” added Maradona, who played in two World Cup finals.

“Messi was abandoned and I don’t want to abandon him. That’s why I want to talk to him, to fight against all those who abandoned him,” said Maradona, who coached Messi and Argentina at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. A demoralized Messi, who had said he would swap his five world player of the year awards for one title with Argentina, told reporters after the match he was leaving the national team.

“In the dressing room I thought that this is the end for me with the national team, it’s not for me,” he said. “I tried so hard to be champion with Argentina. Now I am leaving without having managed it,” he added after the defeat at the tournament hosted in the United States to mark the centenary of South America’s flagship competition.

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