Respected Argentine broadcaster, Fernando Niembro, has revealed that Lionel Messi has a hand in picking members of the squad that has flopped at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Particularly, the choice of Javier Mascherano has come under scrutiny from the Argentine media.
The veteran journalist said enough is enough and called on the 5-time Ballon d’Or winner to retire from international football immediately. He said, “Messi owns the Argentina team. He is the coach of the Argentina team and what he decided to do is play his friends and this is the result of putting your friends. A weak team, a team that isn’t what it can be, a team without heart.”
He included: “Messi we asked for heart. You are the best player, when a team fails what you ask of the best player is that you dig deep and you couldn’t even do that. Enough of Mascherano, your friend, enough from Sampaoli and his contradictions, enough of putting pressure, enough of taking control without a plan. And the truth, once Messi walked away from the Argentina team, and it wouldn’t be bad if he thought about it again.”