For months it was widely speculated that this world cup would be the last for Lionel Messi. But the player himself had not said anything about it.
The World Cup is the only tournament that the Argentine star has not won in his entire career, and at 35 years old, this will be the last chance to grab glory from him.
In a conversation with Argentine journalist Sebastian Vignolo, Messi finally confessed that this will be his last World Cup.
“This will be my last World Cup — for sure. The decision has been made,” he told.
Messi confessed that he is optimistic about what could happen in the tournament, but he is not confident either.
“There is anxiety and nerves for the World Cup. This is the last one, and we don’t know how it will turn out. We can’t wait for it to arrive, but we hope it will go well for us. We arrived at a good time, with a very armed and very strong, but anything can happen. All the parties are very difficult. The favorites are not always the ones that end up winning or going the way that one expected. I don’t know if we are the leading candidates, but Argentina is always a candidate because of its history and what it means. But we are not the top favorites; there are other teams that are above us,” Messi said.
Finally, he confessed that he feels in excellent shape to face the tournament, “I feel good, physically; I was able to have a very good preseason this year that I had not been able to do the year before; it was essential to start in a different way and to arrive as I did, with a lot of mentalities and a lot of enthusiasm”
Messi’s record for his country stands at 90 goals in 164 games, making him the third-highest goalscorer in history.