Lionel Messi warns Mexico about the pressures of hosting the 2026 World Cup: ‘If things go badly for you…’

Mexico, the United States, and Canada will host the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the world’s biggest sporting event. Hosting such a tournament is a great honor and could even be an advantage, but it also comes with significant challenges, as Lionel Messi explained.

The Argentine forward spoke in an interview on the Miro de Atras podcast, hosted by his former Argentina teammate Nahuel Guzman, who has been playing in Liga MX for several years. Among other topics, Leo discussed what the upcoming World Cup could mean for Mexico.

“Now there’s a nice opportunity coming for you and for the United States. Being the World Cup at home, for better or worse, it has an influence,” Messi began, speaking to the Mexican journalists who also participated in the interview. “If things go well, it can be a great opportunity, because playing at home makes a difference. Likewise, if things go badly for you, it will also be noticed.”

Messi knows what he’s talking about, as during his long international career with Argentina, he had the chance to play a major tournament at home: the 2011 Copa America. That was probably the toughest tournament of his entire national team career, largely due to fan criticism after disappointing results.

The pressure affected the team’s performance under then-coach Sergio Batista, which drew against Bolivia and Colombia in their first two matches and only secured a spot in the knockout stages in the final game against Costa Rica. The story ended bitterly, however, as Argentina were eliminated by Uruguay in the quarterfinals.

Messi recalls the matches against Mexico

In the same conversation, Messi reflected on the matches he has played against Mexico with Argentina. “We’ve crossed paths a lot in important competitions. Aside from the last one in the group stage, the others were always knockout games,” the forward recalled.

Since Messi began his journey with Argentina in 2005, Mexico have been one of the teams he has faced most often in official tournaments. Both teams met in the 2007 Copa America and the 2006, 2010, and 2022 World Cups, all resulting in victories for Argentina.

The Qatar 2022 match was particularly important, even though it was in the group stage, because a loss would have meant Argentina’s elimination. “That game against Mexico was decisive for us and one of the ones we suffered the most. So much was at stake,” Messi recalled, scoring the opener in Argentina’s 2-0 win. Looking ahead to the 2026 World Cup, he expressed his wish: “Hopefully we don’t face each other this time.”

Is it an advantage to be a World Cup host?

Being the host of a World Cup can add extra pressure to a national team, as Messi noted, but historically, results have varied. In six of the 22 editions, the host nation went on to win the tournament. This happened with Uruguay in 1930, Italy in 1934, England in 1966, West Germany in 1974, Argentina in 1978, and France in 1998.

That success rate might seem low, but it’s important to consider that many host countries historically had little realistic chance of winning the tournament. Even so, host nations often performed above expectations.

In several cases, a team’s best performance came precisely when they hosted the World Cup. This includes Switzerland (fifth place in 1954), Sweden (finalists in 1958), Chile (semifinalists in 1962), and South Korea (semifinalists in 2002). The most emblematic case is Mexico, which has only reached the quarterfinals twice in its history—both times at home, in 1970 and 1986.