Lionel Messi included in Argentina squad for their international friendlies in March

Lionel Messi has been named in Argentina's most recent squad for their upcoming international friendlies later in the month of March.

La Albiceleste begin their preparations as they look to defend their Copa America crown later in the summer. Argentina are set to face El Salvador and Costa Rice in two friendly matches in the United States on March 22 and 26 respectively.

Lionel Messi is once again part of an extremely strong Argentina squad ahead of an international tournament. The eight-time Ballon d'Or winner will be joined by other star attackers, including Julian Alvarez, Angel Di Maria and Lautaro Martinez amongst others.

The squad for those upcoming matches can be seen below:

Lionel Messi will be facing El Salvador for a second time in a span of a few months. He formed part of the Inter Miami squad which traveled to the Central American nation as part of their pre-season tour ahead of the 2024 Major League Soccer (MLS) season.

Inter Miami played out a 0-0 draw on that occasion. Messi started the pre-season game but was substituted at half-time by manager Gerardo Martino. The former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) superstar will now return to El Salvador with his national side.

It will be the first time he will play against them whilst representing the three-time world champions. He was an unused substitute when La Albiceleste played El Salvador back in 2015.

Lionel Messi, meanwhile, has faced Costa Rica once in his illustrious international career. However, it was back during the 2011 Copa America tournament where Argentina beat them 3-0 in the group stages. Messi provided two assists on that occasion.

---

How did Lionel Messi perform for Argentina during the previous international break?

It is worth mentioning that this is the first international break of 2024. The last time Lionel Scaloni's side played together was back in November 2023 when they faced Uruguay and Brazil in their 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. The defending world champions suffered a 2-0 defeat against Uruguay before beating arch-rivals Brazil 1-0 away from home.

Lionel Messi, however, failed to make a single goalscoring contribution in either of the two matches. He played the full 90 minutes in the game against Uruguay while playing 78 minutes against Brazil.

Messi did have a good against Uruguay though. The skipper managed to provide four key passes in the game and also created one big chance which was not taken by his teammates. He also hit the woodwork once in that 2-0 defeat.

Messi then had a relatively quiet game against Brazil as Argentina picked up a 1-0 win. He had just one shot whilst he was on the pitch but did have a 96 per cent pass completion rate.