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Messi comes out of retirement, returns to Argentina national team

Xinhua, August 13, 2016 Adjust font size:

Football star Lionel Messi announced on Friday that he was reversing his decision to retire from international football and would be returning to the Argentinean national side as he loved his country "too much".

"I see there are many problems in football and I do not want to create another," said the 29-year-old Messi in a press release, referring to the institutional crisis within the Argentinean Football Association (AFA).

"There are many things to fix within Argentinean football and I prefer to do so within than to criticize from outside," he continued.

The forward, who plays for Barcelona, announced his retirement from the national team in June after Argentina was defeated by Chile in the final of the Copa América Centenario.

Messi missed a penalty during the third straight final he has lost with the national team, after the 2014 World Cup and the 2015 Copa América.

"Many things went through my mind the day of the last final and I seriously thought of leaving. However, I love my country and this shirt too much," he wrote on Friday.

Argentina, headed up by new coach Edgardo Bauza, will begin its qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup in Russia by facing Uruguay on September 1 and Venezuela on September 6. Endit