I Dedicate COPA Trophy to My Family, Maradona -Messi

Football Star, Lionel Messi has dedicated Argentina’s Copa America triumph over Brazil to his family, his country and also late idol Diego Maradona.

“I want to dedicate this success to my family, who have always given me the strength to continue, to my friends whom I love so much, to all the people who support us and above all to 45 million Argentinians who have suffered so with this dreadful virus,” Barcelona megastar Messi wrote on Instagram.

Argentina is approaching a 100,000 Covid-19 death toll and weeks before the start of the Copa tournament Buenos Aires refused to co-stage the event with Colombia owing to the surge in pandemic cases. The South American confederation CONMEBOL ultimately transferred hosting rights to Brazil at the last minute.

Messi, 34, also paid tribute to the memory of Maradona, who died aged 60 last November, saying that “Diego was surely urging us on wherever he is.”

Argentina’s success over the Brazilians in Rio was not just Messi’s first major trophy for the Albicesletes but his country’s first continental honour in 28 years.

Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni also paid tribute to Lionel Messi on Saturday, praising his team captain and revealing he played in the Copa America win over Brazil with an injury.

We are talking about the best footballer of all time and everyone knew how important it was for him to win a title with the national team.”

“I have a relationship that is different than the (usual) coach-player relationship,” Scaloni added. “It’s closer. We greet each other, we hug each other, and I am eternally grateful to him and his team mates.”