Messi to return for Argentina next year

Lionel Messi will play for Argentina again in 2019, according to the national team's general manager Jorge Burruchaga.

Messi has not represented his country since the World Cup, where Argentina were beaten in the last 16 by eventual winners France. Burruchaga is confident, though, that Messi will be back in the Argentina team in time for their Copa America campaign in Brazil in 2019.

"No date is scheduled right now for the return of Messi and he will not be back before the end of the year," Burruchaga said. "But it's impossible that he will not be in the national team again. This is transitory.

"I'm sure that next year, he will be in the Argentina national team again."