5 reasons why Lionel Messi should retire from international football

#3 Let others take over

FBL-WC-2018-MATCH50-FRA-ARG — Dybala and co. have the talent

There is a conception that after the departure of Leo Messi from Argentina, the team will crumble – and evidence has shown just that. Argentina were on the brink of losing out of the World Cup when Messi announced his retirement in 2017 and La Pulga had to come back again to take them to Russia.

When Messi retires, Argentina will be dismantled. They might as well miss out of playing in a World Cup – or they might just resurge like a phoenix.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is arguably the greatest Swedish player of all time and yet, he could never inspire his nation to do anything worthwhile in major tournaments. After his retirement from Sweden, the Swedes not only qualified for the World Cup this year – they missed out with Ibrahimovic in 2014 – but ended up as group champions to progress for the second round.

It happened because the others took over. Similar could happen with Argentina as Messi’s retirement could help…

About the author

Umid Kumar Dey has been writing at Sportskeeda since January 2015, focusing mainly on football, cricket and WWE. In that time, he has gone on to become one of the most-read writers on the website.

His work has also featured on Goal and he has also edited a book. Currently, he works as a freelance writer who aspires to become a data scientist in the field of sports.

You can follow him on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/TheFutbolJoker

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Edited by Sripad