Lionel Messi is currently experiencing one of the greatest moments of his career, winning the championship with Inter Miami and winning the World Cup with the Argentina national team. But his career in the Albiceleste jersey has been full of ups and downs, with dark moments when he almost gave up and walked away.
Recently, in an interview with the streaming channel LUZU, the Argentine star talked about how bad it was for him that the results and personal performances with the Argentine national team were not what was expected.
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They insulted me, things went badly for me, and the results didn’t go my way. My family suffered the most. They remained in Argentina.
Leo Messi recalls Argentina’s poor performance
He is now an absolute idol in Argentina, but it wasn’t like that from the beginning. Wearing the number 10 shirt, he also had to take on the responsibility of living up to what Maradona had achieved in the past with the national team. And after a series of failures and being eliminated in the final, Messi experienced tense moments with the fans, which were the complete opposite of his time at Barcelona, when he was already an absolute idol.
In Barcelona, I was great. But when I went to Argentina, I was a weirdo.
Messi talks about how his family has suffered from criticism in the past
Similarly, the Argentine “10” player pointed out that it was his family who suffered the most from criticism of his performance in the national team, as he tried to distance himself from social networks and analysis programs, but for them it was inevitable to hear them. Messi had already clarified this in a previous interview: “My son asks, ‘Why do we kill in Argentina?'” and today he touched on the issue again.
They devoured the show and the reviews and a lot of things I didn’t know because I wasn’t watching. But they knew everything and suffered much. For me, these were days that made me think about the following.
Fortunately for Messi, those days are behind us, and few in Argentina now doubt that he is one of the greatest players of all time. He is the undisputed favorite to win the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and looks likely to be in the final squad for the 2026 World Cup, where Argentina are one of the favorites to qualify for the final. At Inter Miami, he made an immediate impact, winning the Herons’ first MLS Cup and becoming the tournament’s top scorer and assist leader.
