Superstar Lionel Messi announced that he will not join the Argentina team to defend the throne at the 2026 World Cup.
Messi (left) is training with the Argentina team to prepare for the match against Australia in China – Photo: REUTERS
Messi and Argentina are in China preparing for a friendly match with the Australian team at 7:30 p.m. today, June 14. On this occasion, Titan Sports (China) had the opportunity to interview the former Barca player.
When asked by Titan Sports about the possibility of participating in the 2026 World Cup, Messi replied: “I don’t think so. The tournament in Qatar is my last World Cup . Although we will still see how things go in the future, basically I will not participate in the 2026 World Cup.”
As for coach Lionel Scaloni, the head coach of the Argentina team, he said that Messi is always in his plan to defend the World Cup title . “We always welcome Lionel Messi. And if he cannot join the team, we have to find an alternative solution,” Scaloni said.
“I hope Messi will attend the 2026 World Cup. We can absolutely see Messi there” – Scaloni emphasized.
Recently, Messi decided to leave PSG to play for Inter Miami in the US Major League Soccer (MLS).
Here, Messi is expected to receive about 75 million USD/year in a 4-year contract.
By coming to the US to compete, many people believe that Messi is planning to attend the 2026 World Cup. The US, Mexico and Canada are the three countries co-hosting this tournament. But when everyone was excited about this prediction, Messi announced that he would not attend the 2026 World Cup.
However, from now until the 2026 World Cup starts, there is still a long time and the possibility that Messi will change his mind cannot be ruled out. In fact, this superstar has changed his personal decision many times when Argentina needed him.
