Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi affirmed on Monday that "any player" was part of the national team only "to fulfill" when Alfio Basile coached it and added that he wants to play a friendly match against France.

Messi said that he does not want to discuss what Basile, who had said that during his last stage as coach the soccer players had lost "the mystic" and the play "to fulfill (the compromise)".

"I do not think any soccer player had come to the National team to fulfill. All the guys I know love this T-shirt and I do not believe that they have done it for compromise," Messi said.

On declarations to the TyC Sports channel in Rosario City, where Messi is spending his holidays together with his family, he said that if Diego Maradona (current coach of the national team) summons him, he will be available for the friendly match against France on Feb. 11 in Marselles.

"I have talked with (Josep) Guardiola (coach of Bracelona club),and I told him that I would like to be (in the match). He understood. However, it misses time, he supported me," Messi said.

Messi recognized that in the last matches with the t-shirt he did not show the level he has in Barcelona, but he did not get worried for that situation. "I think it is logic, because in my team we are used to, we train almost all the year together," Messi said.

"The lack of knowledge and trust makes Argentina not being able to give its maximum. I am aware that in the national team I am not the same I am in Barcelona. In the eliminatory the people criticized us and the journalists killed us and that makes you play with more pressure," Messi said.

(Xinhua News Agency December 30, 2008)