Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni insisted, after the Copa América victory over Brazil (1-0), that Lionel Messi did not need this victory to be the best ever, something he had already said in the preview.
“For me it doesn’t change anything, Messi is still the best in history, as he would have been if he hadn’t won,” said Scaloni, suggesting that the player played injured in the last two games. “If the Argentines knew the way he played this Copa America, they would like him even more, I have no doubts. I don’t know what percentage he played due to a hamstring problem,” he said, “but I couldn’t do without a player like that, even in an inferiority.
“We have to admire him because soon he will no longer be active and we will regret it”, he also said, confessing “eternally grateful” to Messi and the other players: “I feel enormous joy and great pride in these 28 warriors who came to play the Copa America, who left many things to play it, and in very difficult conditions, because they had to be in a ‘bubble’, closed.”
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