Aftermath of Argentina World Cup Ouster: Mascherano Announces his Retirement from National Team

By Admin Argentina and former Barcelona player, Javier Mascherano, has announced his retirement from International football following Argentina’s defeat to France. Mascherano did okay in the game but was unable to deal with the pace of Mbappe as the French ran riot scoring 4 goals to send Argentina packing. The 34-year-old was at the forefront of the player revolt against coach Sampaoli whom they wanted sacked after his inability to lead them to victory against Iceland and Croatia. Mascherano had already hinted that all was not well in the camp after Nigerian game saying: “As a collective, where things don’t go as we’d like, we all have our own frustrations.” Mascherano made his debut for Argentina in 2003 and made a total of 146 times, scoring thrice. Argentina head home while France move on to the Quarter finals where they will face one of Portugal or Uruguay.