The Argentina captain left his future up in the air after his side’s exit World Cup at Russia 2018, but he is needed now as much as ever by his national team . There was no international retirement this time. As Argentina crashed out of the World Cup in the last 16 on Saturday following a 4-3 defeat to France in Kazan, Lionel Messi stayed silent. Widely considered one of the greatest players ever, the Barcelona star is still looked upon unfavourably by many in his homeland compared to Diego Maradona, who led Argentina to World Cup glory in 1986. While Javier Mascherano announced after the game that he would be bringing his international career to an end at the age of 34 and it was confirmed that Lucas Biglia will do the same , but there was no news from the captain.
Messi finished the game against France with two assists, but he was stranded for much of the afternoon in areas of the pitch in which he has little influence, having been picked as a false nine and forced to drop deeper in a team with no focal point ahead of him. It was a sad and perhaps predictable end to a World Cup which never really got going for Argentina amid numerous problems for the Albiceleste, who leave with two defeats, a draw and only one win at Russia 2018 – a last-gasp victory over Nigeria.
“If things go badly, we will all have to disappear from the national team,” Messi had said before the tournament. “It will be difficult because we have been together for many years. We have to think about this World Cup – and it could be the last.” Messi turned 31 last week and by the time the next World Cup comes around, he will be 35, with the tournament in Qatar set to take place in November and December instead of during the summer due to the extreme climate conditions in the west Asian country.
However, the Barcelona forward looks like the type of player who can adapt his game with age and drop deeper into more of a playmaking role, perhaps similar to how he set up Sergio Aguero for Argentina’s late third goal on Saturday. Time will tell. In any case, Messi perhaps wanted to avoid a of heat-of-the-moment decision like the one he took two years ago, when he announced his international retirement after missing a penalty as Argentina lost the Copa America Centenario final to Chile in the United States.
The pain of losing three consecutive finals (the World Cup in 2014 and two consecutive Copas America in 2015 and 2016, plus another continental crown in 2007), had proved too much. A couple of months later, though, he was back.
On Saturday, however, he was still searching. “We have the best player in the world and we had to try to create collective situations to really use that player who can have many brilliant moments,” he said. “We tried many different tactics – surround him, create space for him … we tried to use everything we had to allow him to do what he can do. Sometimes we managed it, sometimes we didn’t.”
Mostly, however, they did not and in the end, there was probably not enough time for Sampaoli to work with the players to find the way he really wanted to play. As Chile coach, he led a four-year process which culminated in winning the Copa America in 2015. With Argentina, he has had barely 13 months.
Despite all the criticism in his homeland, Sampaoli is a coach who is fond of a process and, given more time, he may yet be the right man to lead this team to better things in future – without the chaos and immediate pressure of a flailing qualification campaign and then the tournament hot on its heels. With the World Cup gone now, there is time to work and time to build for the future, to shape a side in a fresh image. And ideally, Messi would be at the heart of it to lead a new generation.