Diego Maradona has yet again slammed the Argentina national team set-up, saying the country’s football association is full of “traitors” and criticising midfielder Javier Mascherano as he continued his robust defence of talisman Lionel Messi.
The Barcelona star has not played for Argentina since this summer’s World Cup, where the team made a disappointing Round of 16 exit after barely making it out of the group stage.
Messi informed the Argentinian FA (AFA) that he would not be available for selection for the foreseeable future, missing the team’s friendlies in September and again not being named to the squad for the upcoming international break. However, he has not officially retired.
Maradona led La Albiceleste to their last World Cup win in 1986 and managed Messi and many more of today’s stars, including Mascherano, during a short stint that included the 2010 World Cup.
He believes Messi – his successor as the country’s great footballing hope – owes the national team no more, and should not come back for international duty again, after the criticism he has received for not winning a trophy with the national side during an otherwise decorated career.
“That’s why I am telling him not to come back and take all of the blame,” said Maradona of Messi.
“We will mourn him because there is no other player like him, but just as Messi falls, so does the AFA.
“It is very easy to say that Messi is to blame, but they are going to kill the kid.
“And this kills me because if there are comrades who really love Messi, they should have come out and defended him, not press silence.
“I was wrong about Mascherano, I thought he was a leader. Today, I have to say that Mascherano is not what I believed, but that mistake is totally mine, not his.”
The Argentina legend, who is now manager at Mexican side Dorados, also ruled out a return to the national team job.
“I won’t return,” said Maradona.
“I’m really looking forward to doing a lot of things here and in the national team there are a whole bunch of traitors, so I’m not going back.
“We wanted a new AFA and we got [Claudio] Tapia. I’m guilty in that as well. He came to ask for support and I said yes.
“He told me a lot of things and then did nothing, he did not call me anymore. That’s betrayal and I spit in the face of traitors.”
