The former Argentine and Colombian coach, José Pekerman, Granted an interview for TNT Sports in which he speaks of the situation of Messi in the Barcelona and how the striker refused to play for the Spanish national team.
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The coach was part of the lower categories of the Albiceleste and was the one who made his debut at the 2006 World Cup. According to him, Rosario may have been part of the ‘Red Fury’, but he decided to reject the offer.
Messi’s current situation
” He is not happy to see Messi at the moment with what has happened to him. He had made a decision that seemed final and irreversible. He was convinced. And for what has happened since, Messi was right in his decision. Internal issues are hard to think about without being in place and every club has its situations that people who are there know. ”
descent
” Messi has been an emblem, as Guardiola said, ‘the strawberry for dessert’, of a generation of Barcelona that delighted us for a decade. Like any cycle, there is always a general decline that sometimes leaves them out of series are the ones who can suffer the most. It must be a moment for Leonel and his family. He is well noticed in the individual part and he still has to give a lot and in the selection he is a key player ”.
Advice for the future
” It’s hard to advise because there is no one better than yourself and your circle to make those decisions. If we look at their careers and their choices to become what they are, I think the best advice is to follow through on what they have always wanted. ”
How did you recruit Messi for Argentina?
” We practically stole it in Spain. What we had seen from some videos, both Claudio Vivas who spoke with Toncalli, and we already had some reports of a little Rosario. At that time I had moved away from the national team, in 2002, and I went to Spain to work at Leganés. There we saw him play in Barça youth teams. There was a regulation in FIFA that has already changed, which said that a player who played in the youth teams could not play in the absolute of another country. We made the strategy for the South American to play, because the European Championship was also coming and in Spain it didn’t go unnoticed and I was going to play with the Spanish national team ”.
Messi’s words
” His parents let him decide. And his words were: ‘I’m Argentine and I want to play in Argentina’. It was his decision, his feeling, his heart. As they also made the decision to go to Spain so small, quite a challenge. All the decisions were like that and now you have to do that, take the best to be happy. ”
Rijkaard hallucinated with Messi
” In my first efforts with Barça to comply with FIFA regulations, I had to play a friendly match with a squad with the players’ signatures, to state in FIFA that I had already played with us. I was with Laporta, I introduced myself and I talked to him about the authorization for Messi to play in this match. This famous party with Paraguay in the track of Argentine Juniors took shape. It dazzles Messi because he enters the second half with 1-0 and end up winning 8-0. Hugo Tocalli ends up crazy ”.
” The South American plays and returns to Spain and Barcelona had started the pre-season. Rijkaard it takes him to this preseason and the club calls me. I was scared because I thought they were going to reprimand me for something. They said to me, ‘What did you do to him? This guy is another. We had it as a project, a long-term player, but he saw it Rickard and he can’t believe it, he’s driving us crazy, that we hadn’t started the process for the community passport ‘. From here he joined the first team (of Barcelona) ”.
What changed in Messi?
” At Barça they saw him more aggressive and I thought. I attributed it to the fact that he played with boys who were already in the Primera Division in Argentina: Agüero, Di María, Lavezzi … And he was far from the Primera in Spain … He was a team. I think he got infected here and made a very big change. I came to this conclusion ”.
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He dedicated the Golden Ball to you
” That was something extraordinary for me. At the 2006 World Cup he turned 19. I had a team. I noticed a guy listening and he was in a weird moment. He had not made lower categories in Argentina, nor had he lived in Argentine locker rooms, he grew up in a very different environment and had to integrate it into an environment like ours, so different, how it is played and how we live the qualifiers. I spoke to him clearly: ‘You will be the best player in the world, I see that, I see because I have had and I have great players. But this World Cup will not be yours. You’re going to play and I’m going to put you in every minute I can. But it should help you to listen, to talk to the big boys, with Heinze, Román, Gabi Milito, Crespo, Cambiasso … Come closer, Let go, because your World Cup is South Africa, I have no doubt and you will play for many years in the national team ‘. Now he is going for his fifth World Cup ”.