Messi rules out playing in the next World Cup: “I don’t think it will come” | VIDEO

Lionel Messicaptain of the Argentine team that won the World Cup in Qatar 2022, stated that this was “in principle” his last participation in a World Cup, in an interview with a Chinese media broadcast on Tuesday.

“I have said it a few times, I think not (on whether he will be in the World Cup that Mexico, the United States and Canada will jointly organize in 2026), that this was my last World Cup (Qatar-2022), and now I will see how things go. things but in principle I don’t think I’ll make it to the next World Cup,” Messi said in a video interview for the Chinese sports newspaper Titan Sports and broadcast on the Chinese platform Kuaishou.

The winner of seven Ballon d’Ors is currently in Beijing with the ‘Albiceleste’, where he will take part in a friendly match against Australia on Thursday, and where his presence arouses widespread popular enthusiasm.

At the beginning of February, Lionel Messi had already been pessimistic about a new participation in a World Cup. “Because of my age, it seems to me that it is very difficult,” he had declared in the Olé newspaper.

The Argentine star, who landed in Beijing on Saturday, will lead the reigning world champions against the ‘Socceroos’ on Thursday at the recently renovated Workers’ Stadium in the Chinese capital with a capacity for 68,000 spectators.

Chinese fans tried their best to get closer to their hero, and tickets for the match, priced at as much as 4,800 yuan (620 euros/around $670), sold out quickly.