[스포티비뉴스=박대성 기자] The secret story of Lionel Messi (35, Paris Saint-Germain) receiving an offer from the Spanish national team in the past has been revealed. However, he chose Argentina and eventually took the World Cup trophy in his hands.
In an interview with Radio Marca on the 24th (Korean time), Vicente del Bosque, former coach of the Spanish national team, said, “I tried everything to bring Messi to the Spanish national team. refused,” he said.
Messi left Argentina at a young age to learn soccer in Spain. He joined the first team in 2005 from Barcelona youth team ‘La Masia’. When he was coached by Pep Guardiola, he received the number 10 shirt from Ronaldinho and became the core of the team.
He led the golden age of Barcelona with overwhelming performance and even scoring. At the time, Barcelona was mostly the Spanish national team, including Carles Puyol, Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta. If Messi was brought to the Spanish national team, the world’s best scoring ability could be expected.
But Messi chose the Argentina national team. He made his first appearance in the 2006 World Cup in Germany in the Argentina national team uniform. Spain dominates world soccer, dominating the paradigm by winning the World Cup and Euro tournament.
Argentina had Gonzalo Higuain, Sergio Aguero, and Javier Mascherano at the center of Messi, but the performance was not worthy of the name value. Every time I tried to win the World Cup after Diego Maradona, but I failed. They reached the final at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, but lost to Germany and finished runner-up.
Messi camped out multiple times at the Qatar World Cup as ‘last’. The Argentine national team also came together with the motivation to conquer the world with Messi after winning the Copa America in 2021.
Messi’s choice was right, and he defeated France at the World Cup in Qatar and took the World Cup trophy in his arms. Except for the third group match against Poland, he showed off his best ever performance by raising attack points in all matches.
After the World Cup in Qatar, there were rumors of him retiring from the Argentine national team, but Messi wanted to enjoy playing soccer more while wearing an Argentinian uniform. He dismissed the prospect of retiring, saying “I still love Argentina and my teammates.”