Argentine coach Fernando ‘Bocha’ Batista, currently serving as the manager of Costa Rica, spoke in a recent interview with Blaugranagram’s partner, Flashscore, in which he discusses his project in the Costa Rican national team, among other topics, Messi’s retirement from international football being one of them.
“Well, replacing a player like Lionel, like Messi, is impossible”, he states about Barça’s super legend, and continues, “I imagine that in this case the coach (Lionel Scaloni) had been anticipating it, because we knew that at some point it could happen, even though he thrilled everyone with the great World Cup he had in the United States.”
Batista was the manager of both U20 and U23 Argentina’s national team, and even had a short stint in the senior squad (three games) prior to the arrival of Scaloni, so he knows Messi very well, and also Argentina’s capacity to produce talent, “Argentina has a great pool of talent, not just those who have already played in two World Cups, but also, as I said, in the under-23 and under-20 teams, they have very important players. Not to replace Messi, because Messi is irreplaceable. The coach will be thinking about putting together a team that tries to feel the absence of the best player in the world as little as possible.”
Batista also spent time as staff member of Armenia’s youth system, and was the manager of the Venezuelan national team before taking over his current position in Costa Rica back in February.
