Coach Lionel Scaloni has suggested Lionel Messi could get a fair amount of playing time in the warm-up friendlies for the 2024 Copa America, with ensuring the captain’s fitness taking precedence over anything else.
Argentina will play two friendlies before the tournament, against Ecuador on Sunday at Soldier Field in Chicago and Guatemala five days later. But Scaloni stressed the need to ensure Messi, who turns 37 later this month, is fit for the defence of the title. “We will see Messi tomorrow,” the Argentina boss said at his pre-match press conference. “He will definitely play for a while. We will study very carefully how many minutes each player will play. Messi, I imagine he will play, I don’t know if it will be the whole game or 30 minutes, 60 minutes. But everyone must understand what is most important, that Messi is protected properly.”
The Inter Miami superstar last played for Argentina as a substitute on October 12, 2023, coming off the bench in a 1-0 win over Paraguay at the Estadio Monumental in Argentina. Without Messi in the squad, Scaloni could still opt to start with young stars Lautaro Martinez and Julian Alvarez leading the attack.
Scaloni, despite including 22 of the 26 players from the 2022 World Cup winning squad in his preliminary 29-man squad for the 2024 Copa America, insisted that his best starting lineup had not yet been determined and that further evaluation would be needed in the friendlies. “I don’t have my best squad yet, especially because I have to evaluate the six changes we have to make,” said Scaloni, who also led Argentina to victory in the 2021 Copa America.
According to the regulations, coach Scaloni will finalize the main 26 players for the tournament before June 15. Real Betis defender German Pezzella is most uncertain to stay in the official list due to physical problems. Argentina will open Group A of Copa America 2024 against Canada on June 20 in Atlanta, then play Chile on June 25, and Peru on June 29.
