Footballer Lionel Messi has declared that he may not participate in the next world cup football competition.
“I don’t think I will participate in the next World Cup. I haven’t changed my mind about that. I’d like to be there to watch it, but I’m not going to participate. After I achieved the World Cup that I was missing, I am satisfied and grateful for the career I have made, and this is what is most important to me,” Messi was quoted as saying.
The footballer also declared that Ballon D’Or was no longer important to him.
“Ballon d’Or? At this point in my career, if it comes, it’s good, and if it doesn’t, nothing happens. Does Ballon d’Or matters to me? No, at this stage in my life, it is no longer important to me. I’ve always said, the individual prizes are not what matters to me, but the collective ones are the most important to me. The most important prize at the moment is the World Cup. This is the greatest prize for me,” Messi noted.
Messi made the revelations in an interview with Chinese Media on Chinese Stream Platform to talk about the World Cup, the Ballon d’Or and Pep Guardiola.
Lionel Messi arrived in Beijing, China by private jet on Saturday and was greeted by hundreds of jubilant fans, with his World-Cup-winning Argentina set to face Australia in a friendly next week.
Asked if he is still in touch with Pep Guardiola, Messi added: “Yes, and he deserved to win the Champions League. He is the best coach in the world.”
This is Messi’s seventh trip to China, the previous time being in 2017. Earlier, hundreds of Chinese fans waited outside Messi’s hotel to give the footballer a rousing welcome.
World champions Argentina will play a friendly against Australia on June 15 at Beijing’s newly renovated 68,000-seat Workers’ Stadium.
Messi, who has chosen to leave Paris Saint-Germain over the summer to pursue his career with Inter Miami, will also play another friendly match, when Argentina take on Indonesia in Jakarta on June 19, as part of this tour.
*(Adapted from a report by Goal.com)
