BUENOS AIRES (AP) — Argentina has bitter memories of 1994, the last time the United States hosted the World Cup.After the second group stage match, national icon Diego Maradona was expelled from the tournament due to a positive doping test. Maradona would never play another World Cup match, and Argentina was eliminated in the round of 16.Thirty-two years later, the South American powerhouse is hoping for a happier ending for Maradona’s heir, Lionel Messi, who is turning 39 this month and is widely expected to retire from international soccer after the curtain comes down on the 2026 World Cup, which the U.S. is co-hosting with Mexico and Canada.If he and Argentina manage to keep the World Cup trophy they won four years ago in Qatar, they will become the first team to win back-to-back titles since Brazil in 1962. It would also strengthen the claim of those who already call Messi the greatest player of all time.
“I love playing football and I’m going to do it until I can’t anymore,” Messi told Argentine broadcast journalist Joaquín “Pollo” Álvarez in a YouTube interview. “I’m competitive, I like to win at everything, I don’t even let my kids win at video games sometimes. It’s just my nature and what led me to achieve everything I have.”
