Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni hopes to see Messi in action at the 2026 World Cup, which will be jointly hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. At a press conference in Ezeiza, where the Argentines are preparing for their first matches in the World Cup Qualifiers, the coach was reluctant to answer about such a distant future, but made his desire clear.
“How am I going to talk about something that is yet to happen? For the sake of football, we all want him to play. Everyone wants this, but there’s no way to talk about it now, we have to be prudent. The Qualifiers will be quite complicated”, said Scaloni, who summoned Messi for the duels with Ecuador, scheduled for 9 pm on Thursday, and Bolivia, next Tuesday.
Today, the striker is a player for Inter Miami, from the United States, one of the hosts of the World Cup, but he will be 39 years old in 2026. In Qatar, last year, he was the big name of the third championship won by Argentina, in an epic final against Mbappe’s France. Before the World Cup, he gave an interview to Star + saying that “certainly” the 2022 Cup would be his last.
When exchanging Paris Saint-Germain for the American team, Messi stated that he wanted to live in a lower pressure environment, after making his entire professional career in Europe, and also to enjoy his family. Since he started playing in the USA, he has been playing dominant football, not surprisingly scoring 11 goals and five assists in 11 matches.
The Argentine star joined the national team on Tuesday and has already trained under Lionel Scaloni. According to the Argentine press, the player was quite relaxed and was seen having mate with former defensive midfielder Javier Mascherano, now coach of Argentina under-20, and Claudio Tapia, president of the Argentine Football Association (AFA).
