Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni made a point of leaving the door open for Messi to keep going until 2026 in North America.
He will be 39 by then but there were precedents at this World Cup, with Brazil’s Dani Alves, Portugal’s Pepe and Canada’s Atiba Hutchinson all seeing action in Qatar just short of their 40th birthdays.
Scaloni said: “We need to save him a spot for the World Cup 2026. If he wants to keep playing, he will be with us. He is more than entitled to decide whether he wants to keep playing for Argentina or not, or what he wants to do with his career.”
However, the traumatic exit of Messi’s long-time rival Ronaldo at Qatar 2022 is a pointer to the Argentina captain not to try to defeat Father Time.
At 37, Ronaldo was reduced to the role of bit-part substitute for Portugal and left the tournament in tears after their quarter-final loss to Morocco.
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