Inter Miami<\/a> and continued performing for the national team in qualifiers for 2026, he says the door remains open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cI\u2019m not thinking about the World Cup and I\u2019m not saying 100 percent that I won\u2019t be there because anything can happen. Because of my age, the most normal thing is that I won\u2019t be there. Then we\u2019ll see,\u201d said Messi in an interview with Argentina\u2019s Star+.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Argentina captain said his focus on June\u2019s Copa America which will be held in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMaybe we\u2019ll do well at the Copa America and everything will work out for us to continue. Maybe not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Realistically it\u2019s difficult,\u201d he said of the chance of a sixth consecutive appearance in the World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Messi said he would be \u201cthe first to know when I can be there and when I can\u2019t. I\u2019m also aware that I\u2019ve gone to a lesser league. But it\u2019s all about the personal side of things and the way you deal with it and how you compete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs long as I feel I\u2019m well and can continue to contribute, I\u2019m going to do it. Today all I\u2019m thinking about is getting to the Copa America. After that, time will tell if I\u2019m there or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to arrive at an age that, normally, doesn\u2019t allow me to play in the World Cup. I said I don\u2019t think I\u2019m going to be there. It looked like after the World Cup I was retiring and it was the opposite. Now I want to be there more than ever,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lionel Messi is not ruling out another bid for World Cup glory with Argentina in 2026 despite acknowledging that time is working against him. Messi, who recently won his eighth Ballon d\u2019Or, raised the World Cup almost a year ago after starring for Argentina in the final against France in Doha. The 36-year-old had suggested […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-international","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/image-10.png?fit=846%2C624&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12781"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12784,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12781\/revisions\/12784"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}