After a lot of speculations, football star Lionel Messi is finally back in international football. Messi has announced his return to Argentina’s national team for their World Cup qualifiers in September, ending his two months retirement period from international football.
Messi, 29, retired from the game after missing a penalty in the shootout against Chile in the Copa America Centenario final. It was a third consecutive loss for Argentina in a major final in two years.
And as always Twitter did not take long to react to the news, making a curious parallel between the Barca superstar and Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi, who has retired in the past only to make a comeback on a couple of occasions.
Here are some of the tweets :
Messi does a Shahid Afridi.
Who would have thought— buttercup (@_Intubationist) August 12, 2016
Leo Messi did a Shahid Afridi by reversing his retirement decision. pic.twitter.com/rVQvFVLFET
— CricTracker (@Cricketracker) August 13, 2016
https://twitter.com/iAnkurSingh/status/764181060624146432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Messi to return to Argentina squad, say reports. Becomes d only player to be in d league of Cristiano Ronaldo n Shahid Afridi at d same time
— Parth MN (@parthpunter) August 12, 2016
https://twitter.com/HasnaZarooriHai/status/764311253934223360
Messi followed Afridi step and took his retirement back great sir RIP all C…s who trolled Afridi now plz bark on Messi as well
— Usman (@usmansatti93) August 12, 2016
https://twitter.com/zoomphatak/status/764180894684815360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Shahid Afridi to file a case of copyright infringement against Lionel Messi. https://t.co/YXZVIizI6r
— अमित ਅਮਿਤ (@DesiOptimystic) August 12, 2016
https://twitter.com/iAnkurSingh/status/764180595064705024
https://twitter.com/akstwits/status/764366432217858048
It's actually triumph of @SAfridiOfficial #MessiReturns following his path and style.
Hence proved #Afridi is Great https://t.co/1vLwzwWM9O— Kashif Ali (@IMKashifAli) August 13, 2016
https://twitter.com/kaushal_singh77/status/764304268090236928
We should have known. Actually, we did know. #Messi #Afridi pic.twitter.com/iudUfQmvzt
— Vinayakk (@vinayakkm) August 12, 2016