Re: FIFA World Cup 2026 :Canada/Mexico/United States: Discussion Thread
I also agree that Messi could still be able to lead the team at the 2026 Cup. Whether he is still able to play most or all the games or not remains to be seen, but going with the team could still be beneficial for everyone. Maybe he is one of those playing coaches and substitutes himself in when a free kick possibility comes up shortly before the game ends and he kicks it in! 
If Messi is still playing at the time then Argentina needs to take him to the world cup, after all there are many spots available and many players never enter the field, so Argentina can allow itself to waste a spot and take Messi to the cup, after all even if he is not at the top of his game there are skills which in theory should never go deteriorate, like the ability to score a penalty kick, so if the Argentinian team finds itself in a difficult position in which they are forced by their opponents to the penalty shootouts then having Messi on the bench ready to enter the field is a massive advantage. We should not wait to see Messi announce something about his retirement at this time because the Messi we know is far from getting announced about getting retired. He had an amazing performance with his national team in the world cup and he had a good performance in PSG even with the negative effect they had there.
Freaky statistic in my opinion. If a player made 5 successful dribbles, but it was 5 successful attempts out of 100, then all these actions were at a loss for the team. Miracles of univariate analysis when, with the right approach, you can achieve any result you want and pass off bad indicators as good ones. I'm not saying that Messi was consistently bad, but such statistics are only annoying.
Well, we all know that Messi does not want to continue at PSG, obviously PSG has a lot of power worldwide, a lot of money, any article that they can filter in the news to justify a possible PSG departure is possible (this is also mere speculation ) now if they say it as a measure to discredit the Argentine national soccer team a bit, it is something else, it is known that in Europe it hurts a lot that France has not won, things can go in that direction, although it is not something very nice, but It is quite possible, players like Messi, CR7 make enemies out of nowhere, just for playing well, sometimes it is to cause more shock or it can be mere envy.I don’t know what you meant (maybe you didn’t understand what I wrote), these statistics are just in favor of Messi, but I see that it is completely divorced from reality and does not mean anything. I don’t think that PSG is interested in somehow influencing the reputation of the Argentina national team or Messi - for them, his departure is a competent mutually beneficial decision. He's not worth the money they pay him.
Could be right and could be wrong, Paris Saint-Germain might save a lot of money about Messi's departure because it will be too much to ask that he will still play like he is still in his younger days as he is now getting older as the goes by but that also gives the Paris Saint-Germain a negative reputation because somehow, their power is not that good anymore, I know that they still have a lot of great players like Neymar, Hakimi and Mbappe, but with Messi's departure, that will certainly make a difference.
In PSG they had enough money to keep any player they wanted but something money is not everything you need, Messi gets some respect from people which is not something he gets.