"I'll do everything I can to make sure he's there." That's Lionel Scaloni, Argentina's head coach, publicly lobbying for his own captain to show up at a World Cup his country is defending. That sentence shouldn't need to exist. And yet, with fewer than three months until kick-off in North America, nobody knows whether Lionel Messi will be there.
Messi is 38. He's still playing regularly for Inter Miami in MLS. His body hasn't given out. His appetite for football, by all accounts, hasn't either. But whether he wants to go through what a World Cup campaign actually demands — the travel, the scrutiny, the pressure of being the face of a defending champion — that's a different question, and only he can answer it.
Scaloni is waiting, and so is everyone else
The Argentina coach was measured in his comments this week, but the subtext wasn't subtle. "It's not me who decides," Scaloni said via ESPN. "It's up to him, his state of mind, his physical condition." He also said there's no deadline. "We're in no rush about it."
That's either genuine patience or a very diplomatic way of saying the situation is out of his hands. Probably both.
What Scaloni did make clear is what Messi means — not just to Argentina, but to the tournament itself. "It's not just the Argentinians who want to see him. Everyone wants to see him." That's not flattery. A World Cup without Messi, who carries 115 international goals and the 2022 trophy on his résumé, is a noticeably smaller event. TV deals, betting markets, casual viewership — all of it takes a hit if he stays home.
March friendlies may tell us something
Argentina face Mauritania and Zambia before the end of March, both at home, and Messi is expected to play in both. Watch those matches closely. A player who turns up sharp and hungry for a pair of low-stakes friendlies is a player who's leaning toward June. A player who looks like he's going through the motions is something else entirely.
Argentina open the World Cup against Algeria on June 16, with Austria and Jordan also in the group. On paper, that's a draw Messi could navigate in his sleep. Whether he'll be asked to is still the only question that matters.
"We hope he will be there," Scaloni said. Hope. From the coach of the world champions, about his best player. That's where things stand.
