"Messi can still win something with Argentina"

"Yes, I believe that he still has the opportunity, his team-mates have to be chosen well and that they are in a favourable situation to help Messi to give his full potential", Griffa said during an interview with the 'Agencia EFE' in Madrid.

The 1959 Copa America winner (as a player for Argentina) is in Madrid to receive a tribute and go to Atletico's new stadium (Wanda Metropolitano) for the first time and he reflected with EFE on why Argentina is not capable of winning any title despite having the star of Barcelona, one of the best players in the world.

"Nobody does anything alone, you have to be surrounded by able people and sometimes that selection is not the right one. In any case, years go by for everyone and this situation that one makes at 20 or 25 years old cannot be made at 30 or passing 30, there are already changing and totally different situations," he said.

Could the train have left to win with the Selection for Messi? Griffa doesn't think so. "You don't want the years, but they come to you. Messi is still an important player, has a good management of his mind to play, has a characteristic that somehow requires football, and I think the answer at this time is giving it his all" said the former player.

In order to do this, it will be key to find partners for Messi in the current Argentina squad, Lionel Scaloni, confirmed as the coach until the 2022 World Cup in Qatar after managing as an interim in the Copa America 2019, in which his team got to the semifinals.

"Scaloni is a new boy, I had him as a player, he is learning... You have to put older people who have lived many experiences, skilled people, full of years and full of virtues within the demands of the one who is being formed," Griffa said.

"He's a young boy, full of great enthusiasm to succeed, I imagine, as a coach of the First Division and especially in the Argentine national team. That situation is going to happen according to what the leather gives us," added the former defender.

Griffa, who played for Newell's Old Boys (1954-59), Atlético de Madrid (1959-69) and Espanyol (1969-71), became responsible for Newell's youth categories after his retirement, where he discovered talents such as Jorge Valdano, Gerardo Martino, Gabriel Batistuta, Maxi Rodríguez and Abel Balbo.

Later, at Boca Juniors, he met as many players as Éver Banega, Fernando Gago or Carlos Tevez, but regretted that he never had the call of the 'Albiceleste' to help in their youth categories.

"The Argentine national team never called me at all. Yes, the clubs have had concerns about taking me for the recruitment and development of youth," lamented the former player and coach, who is hopeful that Messi can win a title in the future dressed in blue and white.