Argentine football icon, Lionel Messi, has admitted that his fitness level is no longer at 100 per cent and stressed that he may never be at his best again.
Lionel Messi is regarded as one of the best players of all time. He is currently the most decorated player in terms of the number of titles won for both club and country. He currently has eight Ballon d’Ors to his name, three more than his career rival, Cristiano Ronaldo.
Despite all these accolades and the fact that he is currently 38 years old, most of his critics expect him to continue to shine in every game.
Messi was heavily criticised online after his club, Inter Miami, were disgraced out of the Club World Cup by Paris Saint-Germain in the round of 16 stage on Sunday. Despite the 4-0 defeat, the Argentina international insisted that he is proud of his team’s run.
“I’m very happy that we can participate in this Club World Cup and compete against teams from all over the world under our current conditions”, Messi told DSports.
“Today, the team we played against, as I said before, has won the Champions League. The final score was 4 – 0 or 5 – 0; I can’t remember exactly. There’s no doubt that they are one of the best teams in the world, and what happened today was only natural.
“People didn’t originally expect us to achieve what we have done. I saw a lot of comments saying that we couldn’t get out of the group stage, and there were other negative voices, but we made it through, defeated a European team, and entered the knockout stage.
“For us, what’s important is to participate in the competition. We are well aware of the gap in level between the teams, but we performed very well, and I’m very proud of my team.”
When asked whether he is an alien for always playing 90 minutes of football after travelling long distances for games at 38 years old, Lionel Messi noted that he often tries to do his best to help his team.
“Actually, we’re very lucky in the Club World Cup as the travel schedule is relatively short. In Major League Soccer (MLS) and the Concacaf Champions League, we once had to travel 7 hours for a match, which is very physically draining”, he said.
“As you all know, my physical condition is not 100%, and I don’t think I’ll ever return to my peak (laughs). But I’ll do my best to help, without making any excuses. We must keep moving forward, always.”
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