Chiqui Tapia hopeful Messi will stay on with Argentina 🇦🇷 | OneFootball

And one night Lionel Messi said what nobody wanted to hear in the Argentina National Team. After the victory and qualification of Inter Miami in the Leagues Cup, the star from Rosario confirmed that the match against Venezuela will be his last home game for the South American Qualifiers: "It will be a very special match for me. I don't know if there will be friendlies afterward." He added: "That's why my family will accompany me: my wife, my children, my siblings, my parents, and my wife's entire family."

His statements clearly did not go unnoticed and hit the country like a bomb, to the point that Claudio Chiqui Tapia himself commented on his future with the national team jersey and expressed hope for his continuity beyond this qualification for the 2026 World Cup: "How old is Modric? Is he still playing for the National Team? It depends on Leo, hopefully, he wants to and can continue playing because having the best player in the world on the field is something that we not only enjoy but also means a lot to the group."

Very close to Messi, with whom he often meets to chat and drink mate whenever they have the chance, the president of the AFA passed the ball to him: "We always say the same thing. It depends on him, on how he feels. We who know him know how competitive he is, so we have to wait."

And he asked for patience in a conversation with TNT Sports: "We have to let him live his day-to-day life and decide. The National Team jersey is available for as long as he wants."

Next Thursday, from 8:30 PM at the Monumental, Messi will play his last official match on his home soil against the Vinotinto as part of the penultimate date of the Qualifiers. Five days later, at 8 PM in Guayaquil, he will visit Ecuador to close the path to the 2026 World Cup, and then he will begin to prepare for the upcoming international friendlies.

Tapia specifically confirmed two in October in the United States: "The matches for the October FIFA date will be announced. One will be with Venezuela in Miami at the Hard Rock Stadium and the other in Chicago with Puerto Rico, mainly thinking about the base for the next World Cup."

And he concluded about the idea of warming up in North American soil: "It's also to go see the high-performance center, which we plan to inaugurate before the World Cup begins so that the National Team can have some practice there."

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.