Messi talks Barcelona future and World Cup hopes

Lionel Messi is back in Argentina preparing for the World Cup and has given an interview to tv program Pasion por el Futbol where he talked about his future and also the World Cup.

The Argentine basically said Barcelona is the only club he’ll play for in Europe and added that while he does want to go back to play in Argentina at some point he’s not sure it’ll happen.

He also spoke about Argentina’s chances at the World Cup and said they need to be realistic as they are not the best team in the world.

“It becomes more and more clear that Barcelona will be my only team in Europe. After that, I have always said that I want to play football in Argentina but I don’t know if it will happen. I have it in mind.

“I’d like to live it, be it for six months or a few matches but I don’t know. One never knows. My dream was to play for Newell’s as a kid, going to the matches with my dad, my brothers, my friends...after that; circumstances in life took me elsewhere but I still have that in mind.”

Messi on the World Cup

“There’s a big challenge coming up for me personally as well as the group. For the country in general, their dream is the same as ours. It’s a beautiful responsibility to be able to represent the entire country at the World Cup.

”We have time to work and we need it. We have to go in there with calmness and send out a message that we will be the best in the world because that is not the case. We are not the best in the world, let’s be realistic, and with that humility, we have to go look for that dream.

“We have players to be able to dream. It’s important to start off with a win to build confidence. We don’t have an easy group.”

Source | Mundo Albiceleste

Argentina have a couple of friendlies before the World Cup against Haiti and Israel, although Jorge Sampaoli has hinted Messi will be used sparingly in those games.

They then head to Russia where they have a tough group after being drawn against Nigeria, Iceland and Croatia.