Diego Maradona has reiterated his call for Lionel Messi to turn his back on the Argentina national team after being let down by team-mates such as Javier Mascherano and “traitors” within the FA.
The Barcelona superstar is currently weighing up his international options on the back of a disappointing 2018 World Cup campaign.
Maradona believes the 31-year-old forward lacks the full support of those around him, with colleagues and administrators failing to divert unfair criticism away from a man who often has to shoulder the expectations of a nation by himself.
The 1986 World Cup winner said: “That's why I am telling him not to come back and take all of the blame. We will mourn him because there is no other player like him, but just as Messi falls, so does the AFA.”
Maradona added, with former Barcelona star Mascherano singled out as a senior figure who should have done more to defend those around him in Russia: “It is very easy to say that Messi is to blame, but they are going to kill the kid. I was wrong about Mascherano, I thought he was a leader. Today, I have to say that Mascherano is not what I believed, but that mistake is totally mine, not his.”
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