If Lionel Messi doesn't win the World Cup, football is unfair, says former Argentina team-mate Oscar Ustari

Messi is still to win a major honour at international level.
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Ben Hayward26 March 2020

Former Argentina goalkeeper Oscar Ustari says football will be unfair if Barcelona's Lionel Messi ends his career without winning the World Cup.

Messi has played in four World Cups so far, losing to Germany in the 2014 final, and probably has only one more chance at lifting football's greatest prize.

"I have no doubt that if Messi isn't world champion, football will be unfair," Ustari told Radio Mitre.

Ustari was not selected in 2014, but was called up in 2006 and has featured in many squads with Messi over the years. And the 33-year-old, now with Pachuca in Mexico, does not understand why the captain's commitment is questioned in his homeland.

"Douting Messi is nonsense," he said. "Things can go well or not, but I can tell you that I have seen him crying like a child because of what was happening in the national team. It's very difficult to be in his shoes.

"I remember that in the 2011 Copa America (when Argentina lost to Uruguay in the quarter-finals at home), I was recovering from a knee injury and when they lost.

"I went to see Messi at the Ezeiza base and I saw him like I had never seen him before. Destroyed."

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