Messi on World Cup: I hope football does end up paying its debt to me!

Messi on World Cup: I hope football does end up paying its debt to me!

Messi espera poder ganar por fin un Mundial con Argentina en Rusia
Messi espera poder ganar por fin un Mundial con Argentina en Rusia | AFP

The Barcelona star spoke to FIFA about the World Cup

He was reminded of a comment made by coach Sampaoli

In an interview with FIFA.com, Barcelona star Lionel Messi has looked back over 2017 and looked forward to 2018, which he hopes will see Argentina win the World Cup. 

Messi is confident Argentina can do well in Russia, despite the problems they had in qualifying: We’ll be in good shape when we get there because we’re still growing. We had to go through something that we didn’t expect or deserve, because we had earlier matches against Venezuela and Peru that we could have won easily. If we had, then we wouldn’t have had to go through what we did at the end. We’ve had four competitive matches with a new coach, but the national team’s going to change now that the Ecuador game’s behind us. It’s going to grow and it’s going to get rid of all the tension and fear it felt because of that match and because of the risk of not achieving our objective. The national team’s going to change a lot."

The Barça No.10 also spoke about the 2014 defeat to Germany in the last World Cup. And he said the pain has still not healed: "No! I don’t know if they’re ever going to heal. We’re just going to have to live with it. It’s going to be there forever. The World Cup is a very happy memory and a bitter one too because of how it ended, how it all worked out. But it’s always going to be there."

On his career, the Argentine is obviously satisfied with how things have worked out: "To tell you the truth, I never thought about how I’d be feeling when I got [to 30]. But I’m very happy with both my personal life and football. I’d say I’m in good shape on and off the pitch. I’m very pleased with where I am right now."

But he recognised that he's changed, too: "Yes, of course. You grow, and as time goes by you improve as well, picking up new things along the way. As I’ve grown older I’ve grown on the pitch too."

After Argentina qualified for the World Cup, beating Ecuador with a Messi hat-trick, coach Jorge Sampaoli said that football owes Messi a World Cup. Smiling, the Blaugrana crack was asked about the comment: "Yes, I did hear it, and he said it to me too. I hope football does end up paying me! (laughs)"