Argentine legend, Diego Maradona, who has been at every Argentina match at the World Cup did not react to well to what happened. Laying into Messi and comparing him to a comic character – Patoruzú, Maradona said: “I saw him very isolated, far away from the box. I said that if he played as a No 9 and had to go looking for the ball, piece the game together, set the goals up and score them. It seemed we were talking more about Patoruzú than about Lionel Messi.”
Lionel Messi could do little as Argentina lost 4-3 to France in the Round of 16 at the 2018 FIFA World Cup and subsequently crashed out of the tournament last week. Messi was fielded as a false 9 with a five-man midfield behind him. However, the Argentine sensation failed to take the game by its neck as he saw La Albiceleste unceremoniously being tossed out of world football’s grandest event. In the absence of strikers such as Paulo Dybala, Gonzalo Higuain, and Sergio Aguero, Argentina were heavily dependent on Leo Messi and the 31-year-old failed to pull them through to the quarter-finals of the World Cup.
57-year-old Maradona lambasted Argentina’s manager, Jorge Sampaoli, by saying: “It was already predicted in the build-up. We knew after we left Moscow that Pavon, Messi and Di María were the ones who were going to attack the French defence, yet I don’t think they know a lot about the box, penalty spot or putting pressure on the centre-backs. Yes, they know how to create, but they’re not strikers. I think we went to the cinema more than the field because we came to see the chronicle of a death foretold. It’s true because Argentina inadvertently went out to attack France but made the mistake of leaving a lot of room for Mbappe.”
Further, according to reports, Maradona has reportedly offered to coach Argentina yet again, and this time, for free. Speaking, he said: “Yes, and I would do it for free. I wouldn’t ask for anything in return. People think I am happy but my heart is heavy. I feel really bad that everything we built with so much effort we destroyed so easily.”