Messi and Argentina's qualifying journey gets under way with a home fixture against Ecuador at the Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires on Thursday, before the team face Bolivia in La Paz next Tuesday. Given Argentina's strength, it would take an upset of mammoth proportions for them to fail to qualify automatically for 2026. The seventh place team will advance to a play-off. The expanded 48-team finals in 2026 mean that six of the 10 teams competing in South American qualifying, which will be completed in September 2025, will qualify automatically for the finals. While the questions may continue to swirl around Messi's future in future, there is less uncertainty about Argentina's prospects for qualification for the World Cup. He is happy on the pitch and it would be very nice for us." "I think Messi can get to the next World Cup," Scaloni said in January. "It will depend a lot on what he wants, on whether he feels good. The door will always be open. Scaloni is on record as saying that a place in the 2026 squad will be Messi's for the asking if he chooses. It'll happen when it happens," Messi told local media. "After winning everything I want to enjoy the moment and wait for time to tell me when it's the moment. Logically, given my age, one would expect it to be soon, but I don't know for sure."Īlbiceleste World Cup-winning manager Lionel Scaloni is certainly in no mood to force the issue. However he later admitted in an interview in July he had no clear idea of when he plans to call time on his international career.
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