Lionel Messi expressed that, when he ends his career as a player, he does not imagine himself in the role of coach, but admitted that he would like to be the owner of a club.
“Technical, the truth is, I don’t see myself. I like a manager, but if I have to tell you one thing, I like the part of being an owner more. I would like to be able to have my own club, to be able to grow a club, to start from the bottom. To be able to give the kids the opportunity to grow and do something important,” said Messi, 38, in dialogue with the streaming channel Luzu TV.
“If I have to choose, it is what would call me the most,” added the captain of the Albiceleste and Inter Miami, an American club with which he has a contract until 2027.
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Messi, a figure in the world championship won by Argentina in Qatar 2022, maintained uncertainty about his participation in the World Cup that will be held this year in the United States, Canada and Mexico, and recognized the suffering he suffered when, after the incessant criticism received for the lack of achievements in the Albiceleste, he chose to temporarily leave the team.
“I regretted it a lot because I watched the national team’s matches and I wanted to die. Thank goodness I was able to come back,” mentioned the player, who in recent years also became two-time champion of America with Argentina (2021 and 2024) and champion of the Finalissima (2022).
The Argentine star, who last season became MLS champion and scorer, also reviewed his beginnings in Argentine soccer before emigrating to the Barcelona youth team, with a spell at Newell’s in his native Rosario, where he struggled with a growth problem, and a trial at River Plate, a club in which he finally did not remain due to a bureaucratic obstacle.
“I did a test, I went on my own, I was training and River told me that they wanted me to stay, that they were going to take care of the treatment,” he recalled, and explained that in the end it did not come to fruition because Newell’s put obstacles in the way of the transfer.
“Then the Barcelona thing appeared, which was not in anyone’s plans,” he pointed out.
With information from EFE
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