Football legend Diego Armando Maradona has sarcastically criticized Argentina's Lionel Messi for saying that he is not fit to lead his country, citing a strange reason, according to Spanish newspaper AS.
"Messi and Barca are very different from Messi with Argentina, do not make him bigger than Tango," the newspaper quoted Maradona as saying in a Mexican program called The Last Word.
"It is not good to have Messi captain Argentina, he goes to the toilet about 20 times before the start of the matches."
"If I were Argentina's technical manager, maybe I would not have called Messi for his performance with the tango, but I'll make him reconsider and come and play for his country as I want."
The former Argentina coach said he would like to return to the training of the tango dancers one day, adding that he also did not mind coaching the Mexican team.
Maradona also criticized former Argentine coach Jorge Sampaoli, who led the team at the 2018 World Cup.
"When Sampaoli led Argentina, he did not have a clear footprint with the national team. We did well against teams like Nicaragua and El Salvador, but then we could not compete against strong teams like Spain or the Netherlands," he said.
Argentina were eliminated from the last 16 by France after losing four to three goals after suffering in the group stage.
Argentine striker Lionel Messi did not appear well throughout the tournament, scoring only once against Nigeria.
