Eight days after Argentina lost the World Cup final 1-0 to Spain at MetLife Stadium, the interview South American editors keep re-linking is not from July. It is from December.
Lionel Messi’s long ESPN SportsCenter exclusive, recorded before Inter Miami’s MLS Cup final on 6 December, has been pulled apart again in the last week.
The Guardiola tribute is being shared as a stand-alone clip. The “day by day” line about his future is being quoted back at him. And a single sentence about watching the tournament from the stands now reads as prophecy.
“For me, Guardiola is unique”
The passage travelling furthest in Argentine and Brazilian media is Messi’s assessment of his former Barcelona coach.
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Asked to place Pep Guardiola in the game’s coaching hierarchy, he refused the “best coach” label and reached for a different word.
“For me, Guardiola is unique. There are extraordinarily good managers, but he has something different. For me, he is the best of all,” Messi told ESPN, according to the Spanish-language transcription published by ESPN Mexico.
He then broke the compliment into its component parts.
“When it comes to seeing things, preparing matches, communicating with players, he is very complete. He is the best.”
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Guardiola, he said, had exported his identity intact.
“He went to other places and continued winning. It’s not just because of winning but because of the way his teams played.
He did it at Bayern, although he couldn’t win the Champions League there, he changed the way the game was played in Germany, the same in England with City, he changed the way the league is played.”
Messi also recalled asking Guardiola for time off during his Barcelona years to travel back to Argentina and being granted it. “I had, in inverted commas, arguments with Pep because many times I didn’t want to, or the dates didn’t work.
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But he always understood me, he let me go, he gave me permission,” Messi said, as recounted by Argentine outlet Hoy Día. “For me that was inspiring.”
The line that has aged into prophecy
Seven months before the tournament, Messi was asked whether he would be at the World Cup. His answer, in full, is now everywhere.
“I hope I can be there. I would love to be there. I’ll take it day by day, being honest, being realistic.”
Then the line that Latin American editors have been pushing back to the top of their sites: “At worst, I’ll be there watching it live, but it will be special.”
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He did get there. He played every knockout round, finishing the tournament with eight goals and four assists before Ferran Torres’ 106th-minute winner ended the title defence.
“Día a día” is now the phrase Argentine analysts are using to describe how Messi is approaching the aftermath.
No answer on life after football
For all the picking-over of the interview, one theme is absent. Messi was not drawn into describing life after football.
He deflected with the same day-by-day formulation he has used for two years.
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“I don’t know. The truth is, I’m not thinking about that right now. It seems a bit far off but, as I said, I’m living one day at a time and focused on the present,” he said in comments reported by Marca and re-published in the wake of the final.
His club position at least is unambiguous. Messi’s Inter Miami contract runs through the 2028 MLS season.
The Argentine Football Association, according to the same reporting, wants him to stay with the national team until at least the 2028 Copa America. He has decided neither, publicly.
What he did say, the day after the final
Messi did not appear at the post-match press conference. His only public words since the defeat came on Instagram, in a message published on 20 July.
“The pain is huge, and this wound will take time to heal,” he wrote. He congratulated Spain, thanked his team-mates, and stopped short of any mention of what he does next. No timeline, no retirement, no promise of Copa America 2028.
Which is why the December interview keeps circulating. In the absence of a fresh Messi statement, “día a día” is the one South America has to work with.
