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The Argentine star leaves all options open for the World Cup, talking about the winning mentality of the world champion team, Argentina, and not forgetting his former coach Pep Guardiola.
In a full interview with ESPN, Argentina and Inter Miami star Lionel Messi spoke about his potential participation in the 2026 World Cup, while praising his former coach Pep Guardiola. The 38-year-old (who will turn 39 during the tournament) reiterated his desire to compete in the 2026 World Cup, but avoided confirming his participation, stating that it would depend on his physical condition.
" I hope to be there. I've said before that I would really like to be," Messi said, adding: "In the worst case, I'll be there watching it live, but it will be special. The World Cup is special for everyone, for every country, especially for us, because we live it in a completely different way ."
Messi, who led Argentina to victory in Qatar in 2022, also praised the current national team: " We have excellent players and that has been evident for years, especially the zeal and enthusiasm since Scaloni took over. It is a team full of winners, with a strong mentality, who want to win more and that is the strongest point ."
Pep Guardiola "unique"
During the interview, Messi praised his former Barcelona coach, Pep Guardiola, whom he described as the best. " For me, Guardiola is unique," Messi said of the current Manchester City manager. "There are extremely good coaches, but he has something different. For me, he is the best of all ."
Messi was a key pillar of Guardiola's Barcelona, which won 14 major titles between 2008 and 2012. He also stressed that Guardiola's success was not limited to Barcelona, but also left its mark in other countries, such as Germany with Bayern and England with City, changing the way those teams played in their respective leagues.
The difficulty of the World Cup
Lastly, Messi referred to the difficulty of the World Cup, recalling the shocking defeat by Saudi Arabia in 2022 and the decisive penalties in the matches with the Netherlands and France.
" A World Cup is very difficult. Any team can cause you problems, can eliminate you... In the last match, we were lucky that, even though we were the better team against both the Netherlands and France, we had to go to penalties, and there we had the beast that was Emiliano Dibu Martinez, who made us win ."
The draw for the 2026 World Cup, in which Argentina will participate as defending champions, will take place on Friday in Washington.
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