Legendary Argentine goalkeeper Hugo Gatti criticises Lionel Messi for missing recent international friendlies

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Buenos Aires, March 30: Argentine star footballer Lionel Messi received huge criticism from legendary native goalkeeper Hugo Gatti.

Due to the light hamstring issue, the 30-years old Barcelona forward didn’t feature Argentina’s two international friendly matches in this month. While Argentina won the match against Italy by 2-0 at Manchester (England), they suffered a humiliating defeat against the hosts Spain by 6-1.

Though the national team’s skipper Lionel Messi was present in the training sessions prior to both international friendly matches, he was unable to come out on the field during the matches.

73-years old former Argentine goalkeeper Hugo Gatti was not happy with Messi’s unavailability in the recent international matches, especially against the Spain where Argentina suffered a humiliating defeat.

Gatti compared Messi with the Portuguese and Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo as he said that Ronaldo could play those games if he was in Messi’s place. The 1982 Footballer of the Year of Argentina award winner said in an interview with El Chiringuito TV, “Messi had to have played. People wanted to see you. Cristiano would have done it.”

Without Messi, Argentina has recently failed to show at least the respectable performances on the field. In the 2018 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, Messi had appeared in 10 matches where Argentina had won six times (drew thrice and lost only once). Meanwhile, Messi hadn’t appeared in the other 8 WC Qualifier matches where the two-time WC champions had managed to win only one game (lost thrice and drew four times).

It clearly shows that the Argentine skipper Lionel Messi plays a hugely important role for his team. However, Gatti believes that Argentina doesn’t need Messi to play better football.

Former Boca Juniors’ goalie commented, “I do not think Messi is the one who makes the team, I do not believe in those things.”