Former Argentina striker Jorge Valdano says that he understands why a mix of pressure and frustration has led Lionel Messi to retire from international football aged just 29.
Messi made the surprise announcement that he was retiring from international football after Sunday's Copa America Centenario defeat to Chile, a third consecutive loss in a major final for La Albiceleste, with the Barcelona attacker missing a penalty in this year's shootout defeat following a 0-0 draw in New Jersey.
Former Argentina player and coach Diego Maradona has been among the major figures calling on Messi to reconsider his decision, while criticising those running the game in his country.
Speaking on Spain's El Larguero radio show, Maradona's fellow 1986 World Cup winner, Valdano said: "Argentina continues to focus all its problems on Messi.
"We are a country which always turns around predestined providential personalities. In football there was one called Maradona and Messi is his successor.
"We ask Messi alone to provide what we should ask from the whole team. This was the tournament in which Messi has played best, but with the accumulation of frustrations he has ended up exhausted, with nothing left.
"It is not easy to take the pressure in a country like Argentina, which has such an exaggerated relationship with football. In every tournament, the best player [for Argentina] was Messi. It is not fair that all the frustration focuses on him."
Fans and pundits in Argentina expected Messi to play for them just as he does for Barcelona, but that was not realistic, Valdano said, and the pressure had led to Messi, who has 55 goals in 113 international appearances, making his outburst following his latest frustration.
"In Argentina they ask him to play as he does for Barcelona, where he has won 28 trophies," he said. "That is absolutely impossible as in Argentina his number of interventions in the game is totally different. With Barca he touches the ball 60 times, with Argentina 30 times.
"And those touches are not with the same collective backing as he has at Barca. That means he must pay a disproportionate price. Always in Argentina, in politics and in football, we look for a providential person [to save the day]. They are forgiven anything, except not succeeding. Messi is a winner who has not won and Argentina is an implacable country with him. So I am not surprised that he had this outburst after missing the penalty."
The announcement followed Messi criticising the Argentine football federation (AFA) ahead of the final and revealing in a news conference on Friday that he had a backlog of complaints with the AFA.
Sources have also told ESPN's Diego Monroig that Sergio Aguero, Javier Mascherano and Lucas Biglia are also planning to retire. Additionally, Ever Banega, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Angel Di Maria and Gonzalo Higuain are also considering their international futures, according to multiple reports.
Asked about hopes that the situation could be turned around and Messi return to the fold before the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Valdano said there was no one leader in Argentine football who could right the situation.
"I am not so sure," Valdano said. "My feeling is he finished the game with an immense weight on his shoulders and he got rid of it with these comments to the press. He liberated himself from this weight by saying goodbye.
"At this moment, I don't know who in Argentina can convince him to remain with the national team. There is not one person who has that credibility or influence. There will be a social movement, in solidarity with Messi's pain and that could move him. But for that we must wait a certain amount of time."
Argentina's participation in this summer's Copa America was thrown into doubt pre-tournament, when the AFA threatened to pull the nation out of the competition after accusing the government of "clear interference."
Current Argentine national president Mauricio Macri tweeted his hope that Messi reconsiders his decision, using the hashtag #NoTeVayasLio (#DontleaveLeo) which many fans had adopted in hope of affecting the situation.
"More than ever I feel great pride in our national team," former Boca Juniors chief Macri said. "I hope the joy of seeing the best in the world will continue for many more years #NoTeVayasLio."