# Sports

Argentina’s Mascherano announces retirement

Argentina’s veteran defensive midfielder Javier Mascherano announced his retirement from international football on Saturday after his team’s 3-4 loss to…

IANS | July 1, 2018 11:08 am

Argentina’s Mascherano announces retirement

Argentina’s veteran defensive midfielder Javier Mascherano announced his retirement from international football on Saturday after his team’s 3-4 loss to France in the World Cup Round-of-16.

“The whole story is over,” said Mascherano, who is Argentina’s most capped player in history with 146 appearances, reports Xinhua news agency.

“From now on I’ll be just another fan of the Argentina team. It’s over. The dream has finished.”

Regarding the match in which teenager Kylian Mbpappe’s brace helped France overcome register a come-from-behind victory, the 34-year-old Hebei China Fortune player said: “We gave everything to the end. It was a crazy game where we did not start well before we recovered and turned it around. But their equalizer hurt us a lot.”