"It's going to be difficult for me to stay with the national team." That's Leandro Paredes, and he's not being dramatic — he's being honest about a situation that has genuinely complicated Argentina's post-World Cup future.
The Roma midfielder is serving a 10-match suspension handed down in August for shoving Spain's Gavi to the ground at the final whistle of the World Cup final — a match Argentina lost. Substitute celebrations sparked the confrontation, Paredes escalated it, and now he's facing three assault charges, a $90,000 fine, and a ban long enough to effectively write off a significant chunk of whatever international career he has left at 32.
What this actually means for Argentina
The suspension alone would be manageable. What makes Paredes' situation genuinely complicated is the second factor: Lionel Messi's retirement from international football. The two are connected in his head, and understandably so.
"We'd spoken in the final days of the World Cup about how the final would surely be his last match," Paredes said, "but even so, we weren't prepared for that because of what he means to us."
That's the real weight here. Paredes, like several of this Argentina generation, built his international identity around a team structured for — and inspired by — Messi. The prospect of rebuilding under Scaloni without him, while also serving out a lengthy ban, is clearly making him question whether there's anything left worth returning to.
He hasn't spoken to Scaloni yet. That conversation will define what comes next.
The broader picture for Scaloni
From a team-building standpoint, this is a rough start to the post-Messi era. Scaloni now has to manage a side in transition — without its greatest player, potentially without a key midfield presence, and with the psychological hangover of a World Cup final defeat still raw. Argentina's odds in any near-term tournament market deserve a hard look given the instability at the core of the squad.
Nahuel Molina also received a two-match ban and a $90,000 fine from the same incident, adding further disruption to the squad's first steps without Messi.
Paredes' final word on his former captain landed with the kind of weight that suggests he knows this era is genuinely closed: "Leo's legacy will live on forever because of what he achieved, for never giving up and for showing that dreams are hard-won, pursued and, in the end, fulfilled."
That reads like a farewell. Whether it's to Messi, to the national team, or to both — Paredes hasn't decided yet.
