Lionel Messi’s doctor, Diego Schwarzstein has said he wants Argentina to lose all their games in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Schwarzstein has played a key role in Messi’s career. After he was diagnosed with Growth Hormone Deficiency, Messi was treated by Schwarzstein. Four years after the treatment, he was signed by Barcelona.
Before he moved to La Liga, Messi gifted his doctor a Newell’s Old Boys shirt with a message that stated: “For Diego, with love from Leo Messi.”
Despite developing into arguably the best player to ever grace a football pitch, Messi hasn’t forgotten Schwarzstein and has maintained close relationship with the doctor.
The Paris Saint Germain star invited Schwarzstein’s son into the Barca dressing room a few years ago. But, despite their relationship, Schwarzstein has conceded that he doesn’t want Argentina to succeed in the World Cup.
In an interview with The Times, he said: “As a football fan, I would like Argentina to be champions. As an Argentine citizen, as a human being, I would like them to lose all three games and be eliminated in the first round. Why? I’m convinced that this obscenely populist government that we have here would use the success of Argentina at the World Cup to cover things up.
“They could announce the devaluation of the currency on the day that the team play when no one is focused on that.”
Schwarzstein added: “I’ve lived through many crises in this country, but this is the worst,” he said. “The data from the government says that to not be poor you have to earn 120,000 Argentine pesos per month (£636). The minimum [monthly] wage is 60,000 pesos, so even those who have work, are poor.”
This comes after the country’s inflation reached a big 83% under the leadership of Alberto Fernandez and banks are currently running out of money.
