“If it’s for Messi, it’s never missing. But never, huh.”
Throughout this Monday, the players summoned to the Argentine team will go through the entrance gate of the AFA site in Ezeiza. But the emblem will be missing, the habitué, the almost fixed inhabitant of the complex since 2004, when he was summoned for the first time for a friendly of the Under 20 team: Lionel Messi. After what the title meant in the Copa América, with the Albiceleste with guaranteed passage to the Qatar World Cup, he was released from his obligations with the national team, although for Rosario, they are not exactly obligations…
As it happened in the continental tournament, when Argentina did not miss a match and even played the definition against Brazil injured; Just like in the last double date of the Qualifiers, when he entered against Uruguay and started against Verdeamarela giving physical advantages, the captain wanted to be against Chile (Thursday 27 in Calama) and Colombia (Tuesday 1/2 in Córdoba). He did not contemplate the chance to be absent. If he did not do it before, when the results eluded him, after four finals without luck, less now, when smiles abound and the consensus he has among the fans is unanimous.
How, then, did they manage to get him to agree to rest within the National Team after contracting COVID-19 and being affected for several days, to the point that only this Sunday did he manage to add minutes in the 4-0 against Reims, in which he contributed a assistance? “Unlike what everyone thinks, it was resolved at the last minute”, he underlined Infobae a source close to the decisions.
Y The person in charge of the direct dialogue with the Flea, 34, was the coach Lionel Scaloni, beyond his good relationship with Walter Samuel, Mouse Ayala and Pablo Aimar, the field assistants. El Gringo put forward a package of arguments to support his position that this time it was not worth risking. He offered as reasons that he had not played since December 22, that he had spent 12 days training differently because he had presented a coronavirus picture with symptoms and some sequelae, and that it was preferable that he recover at his club, gaining minutes, without missing practices And without trips in between.
Even so, knowing the position of the star, Scaloni, who had planned to give the list of those summoned on Monday, January 17, extended the deadline until Wednesday 19, always giving room to the former Barcelona figure. Beyond some statements by Leonardo, sports director (“he spent more time with the National Team than with PSG”), the relationship between the leadership of the AFA and the French institution is good. In addition, the striker has his determination to prioritize Albiceleste by contract. If he had traveled to Argentina, he would not have done anything inappropriate.
But he accepted the proposal of Scaloni and company, with a certainty. “In the next dates it will be yes or yes”, assured the same source. He refers to the qualifying closing matches, against Venezuela as a local and as a visitor against Ecuador, scheduled for the end of March.
In the meantime, the technical director trained at Newell’s will evaluate alternatives, both tactics and when it comes to names, to outline a plan B thinking about a possible absence of Messi in the main dishes, such as the World Cup. Paulo Dybala He looks a step forward to officiate at the Flea, beyond the bad times he had to go through for physical reasons in recent times. Y Angel Strap, of great present in the today irregular Atlético Madrid of Diego Simeone? Regardless of the weight that comes with replacing the team flag, the two are fighting for a spot on Qatar’s 23-man roster. It is an opportunity that, they know, they cannot squander.
The calendar, for its part, can provide a very particular situation: on Monday 31, PSG will face Nice in the round of 16 of the Coupe de France. And there Messi could play, at the same time that, 11,000 kilometers away, the National Team he leads is concentrated thinking about the duel against Colombia that he will see on TV. Everything is so that he recovers his best physical version in the year of the World Cup, although if it were up to him, his private plane would have already deposited him at the Ezeiza airport…
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