BUENOS AIRES: World Cup winner Diego Maradona has called on compatriot Lionel Messi not to abandon international football after the Argentina captain announced he was quitting the national side following Sunday’s Copa America final defeat.

Maradona, captain of his country in the their second World Cup triumph in 1986, was among many leading personalities to speak out in support of Messi, who appeared badly affected by the penalty shootout loss to Chile in New Jersey.

The 29-year-old Messi, a multiple trophy winner with Barcelona, has now been part of four final defeats with the national team, three in the Copa America and at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

“Messi must carry on in the national team... because he still has a lot to give, because he’ll get to (2018 World Cup hosts) Russia in form to be world champion,” Maradona was quoted as saying in the Argentine daily La Nacion on Monday.

“He has to lean more on the lads who can help him take the team forward and less on those who say he should leave,” added Maradona, who played in two World Cup finals.

“Messi was abandoned and I don’t want to abandon him. That’s why I want to talk to him, to fight against all those who abandoned him,” said Maradona, who coached Messi and Argentina at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Messi arrived back in Argentina on Monday and avoided commenting on his abrupt resignation from the national team.

Dozens of emotional fans wearing the white and sky-blue striped jerseys of the national team, adorned with Messi’s number 10, waited in the rain for the team to arrive back from the tournament in the United States.

Some followed the team bus along the road leading from the airport to the Argentine Football Association complex.

They waved flags, chanted “Messi is not leaving!” and carried banners. One of them read: “Messi: I love you more than I love my mom.”

Although Messi could not be seen on the bus, AFA spokesman Ernesto Cherquis Bialo confirmed to that he had arrived in Buenos Aires with the rest of the team.

A call went out on social media for a demonstration to be held on Saturday at the Obelisco monument in the centre of Buenos Aires, a traditional spot for celebrating sporting victories, to urge Messi to reconsider.

President Mauricio Macri, a former chairman of Boca Juniors who was pictured watching Sunday’s match wearing an Argentina shirt, joined the calls for the Barcelona superstar to stay with Argentina.

“He called him and told him how proud he feels of the national team’s performance and asked him not to listen to the criticism,” a spokesman for Macri said by telephone.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2016