Argentinian press said that Messi and Di Maria will attend the Olympics if U23 Argentina wins tickets.
Argentine media said that Lionel Messi and Angel Di Maria have submitted an application to the Argentine Football Federation to attend the 2024 Olympics held in Paris, France. These two Argentine players have both won Olympic gold medals in the past, but they still want to aim for glory again before retiring.
After the 2022 World Cup, Messi and Di Maria still aim for more titles for Argentine football.
According to TyC Sports, both Messi and Di Maria through coach Lionel Scaloni submitted this request to the Argentine Football Association (AFA) for approval. Although Scaloni is the head coach of the national team, not the Olympic team, he is being assigned by the AFA to oversee the work of former teammate Javier Mascherano in the U23 team and therefore Scaloni has a part in deciding who will go to Paris.
AFA is very excited about this idea, they want this to be the last opportunity for both heroes of Argentine football to win a title before officially retiring from their international careers. TyC Sports said that there is an understanding between AFA, Messi and Di Maria that 2024 will be their last year in the teams and the two will take advantage of the opportunity to bring more glory to home football. .
The 2024 Olympics will start about 2 weeks after the 2024 Copa America ends, so Messi and Di Maria will have a short break before going to France. But preparations for the tournament will start early: AFA is arranging for the next Argentina team gathering Messi and Di Maria to practice with the U23 team and even participate in friendly matches if necessary.
Di Maria and Messi at the 2008 Olympics. Di Maria began his “finals” career with the only goal to defeat Nigeria in the gold medal match in Beijing.
Of course all these arrangements will be meaningless if Argentina does not win tickets to the Olympics. Today, January 20, the Argentina U23 team begins the South American qualifying campaign to compete for one of two tickets to the Olympics. 10 teams are divided into two round-robin groups to select the top 2 teams from each group. next round, and the next 4 teams will play another group round to choose the top 2 teams to win tickets to Paris.
The South American qualifiers take place from January 20 to February 11 and because there are only 2 spots, a lot of pressure is on Mascherano, who has not had a good record in the Argentine youth team since taking over. Under the former Barcelona player, there is still a strong team of players, from Brighton’s rookie Valentin Barco to the star of the U17 World Cup and Man City’s rookie, “little devil” Claudio Echeverri.
Mbappe and Griezmann want to represent the French Olympic team at home.
As for Messi, if he still wins the Copa America and Olympics in 2024, it is unknown that this player will be nominated for the Golden Ball again. But the Olympics will not be an easy-to-win arena, Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann are both asking to attend the tournament and Egypt has won the ticket and it is likely that Mohamed Salah will participate. The Spanish team is especially strong because Pedri, Gavi, Lamine Yamal and many stars of this country’s national team are still of Olympic age.
It is expected that there will be no obstacles on Inter Miami’s part for Messi to play for the team. During the Olympics, the MLS tournament will also be paused to make room for the mini Leagues Cup tournament, which is the tournament Messi won with Miami last year but is actually no longer important compared to this 2024 season’s goal of winning. playoff tickets (and if possible, aim for the MLS Cup championship).
