Playing for Spain was never something I considered, says Messi
Buenos Aires, May 29: Argentina skipper Lionel Messi said not for a minute did he ever think of playing for the Spanish national football team, despite having been tempted at times, and added that to be champion of the 2018 Russia World Cup playing for his native country would be a unique experience.
"The other day I was talking to a friend and he told me, 'Look, if you had stayed with Spain, you'd already be world champ,'" Messi, who has had Spanish nationality since 2005, said with a laugh during an interview on Argentina's Channel 13, reported Efe.
As he told it, when he was "15 or 16 years old," the coach of the Spanish national under-17 football squad, "half joking, half seriously," offered him a place on the team.
"But not for a minute did I have any doubts," Messi said, convinced that, if he had played with Spain in 2010 and won the South Africa World Cup with that team, "it wouldn't have been the same" as winning it with the team from the land of his birth.
While a teenager, Messi left his native Rosario to begin in the lower ranks of FC Barcelona, where he was provided with hormonal growth treatment and where he has had innumerable triumphs.
For that reason he said he was sure that, if he continues playing in Europe in the future, it will not be with any other team but the one where he has spent his entire career.
"I'm more certain every day that Europe will be my only place. But I've always said I hoped to play football in Argentina someday, though I don't know if that will happen...but I keep it in mind," he said.
Before settling in Spain, Messi trained with Newell's Old Boys in Rosario, the team with which he would like to play if he ever goes back to live in Argentina.
"Being champion with Argentina would be something unique," Messi said.
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New Zealand MP performs traditional dance in Parliament, rips up copy of contentious bill
Wellington: New Zealand’s youngest Member of Parliament Hana-Rawhiti Kareariki Maipi-Clarke has once again grabbed the headlines after a video of her staging the traditional Maori dance and ripping up a copy of a contentious bill during a House session went viral on social media.
A viral footage of the vote on the Treaty Principles Bill shows the 22-year-old Te Pati Maori MP interrupting the session by tearing apart a copy of the controversial bill before performing a haka. She is then joined by the people in the public gallery, prompting Speaker Gerry Brownlee to briefly suspend the House.
The ACT New Zealand party, a junior partner in the centre-right coalition government unveiled the Treaty Principles Bill last week. It proposes changes to some principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. The bill has sparked strong opposition from many Maori groups.
The Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840 between the British Crown and more than 500 Maori chiefs, established the framework for governance between the two parties. It remains a foundational document in New Zealand, with its clauses continuing to influence legislation and policy to this day.
The bill is being seen as undermining the rights of the country’s indigenous people by many Maori and their supporters. Notably, Maoris make up around 20% of New Zealand’s 5.3 million population.
As the proposed bill passed its first reading, hundreds of demonstrators embarked on a nine-day march, or hikoi, from New Zealand's north to the national capital of Wellington to voice their opposition.
New Zealand’s youngest MP Hana-Rawhiti Kareariki Maipi-Clarke made it to the headlines once again as she tore apart the copy of the Treaty Principles Bill and performed the traditional group dance Haka in the Parliament. This video is now going viral across the world. #HakaDance… pic.twitter.com/PU5XBA9CQu
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