Juventus and Brazil defender Dani Alves insists Lionel Messi‘s “greatness” has not been affected after he prematurely retired from international football.
The No.10 bowed out of the Argentina national set-up after Sunday’s Copa America final, with Messi blazing a penalty over the bar in the shoot-out loss to Chile.
A visibly disheartened Messi seemingly struggled to come to terms with losing his fourth major international final, and his third in as many years.
.@DaniAlvesD2: "Messi? Nothing can diminish his greatness. He knows what he means to football." #BemVindoDani
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) June 28, 2016
Alves was this week revealed as a Juventus player, and upon signing spoke about his former Barcelona teammate, explaining: “Nothing can diminish his greatness. He knows what he means to football.”
The full-back scored in the 2007 Copa America final which turned out to be the start of Messi’s bad luck on the international stage.
Alves would join the Argentinian at Barcelona just a year later and the pair would go on to win 25 trophies together in eight years.
He captained Brazil at this summer’s Copa America, but was unable to inspire his team past the group stage for the first time since 1987, with the five- time world champions losing to Peru and drawing with Ecuador.
Alves’ comments about Messi have come as part of an outpouring of encouragement directed toward the five-time Ballon d’Or winner, who also lost the 2014 World Cup final to Germany.
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