Luis Suarez is of the opinion that the return of Lionel Messi back to international football is a good result for everyone concerned with the game.
Messi had announced his retirement from international football after losing a third consecutive final with the national team. He had previously suffered disappointments at the 2015 Copa America and 2014 World Cup. As a result, there was a lot of expectations riding on the shoulders of the 29-year-old going into the 2016 Copa America final. Yet again, Argentina lost to Chile in this tournament and Messi picked up another runners up medal.
After having been so used to winning major honours throughout his career, Messi has not been able to accept that he has finished as runners-up in three consecutive finals. Argentina coach Edgardo Bauza was able to convince Messi to return to the national team, as a player of his ability would be a catastrophic loss especially at the age of 29. Messi has been part of the World Cup 2018 qualifiers for the South American continent. Incidentally, the opening qualification game for Argentina was against Uruguay and it is meant that Messi and Suarez – who are teammates at club level – ended up being on the opposite sides.
“I am pleased because he is my friend and because I know what playing for Argentina means to him, but also I am pleased for football. World Cups and Copa Americas would be poorer without him.The biggest international tournaments in the world need the best player in the world in them – it is a good result for everybody,” said Suarez, although he would not be happy with the outcome of the game. Uruguay started their World Cup qualification campaign with a 1-0 defeat against Argentina, and ironically, Messi was the scorer of the only goal.