2026 is still three years away. Do you believe that Messi would still be motivated to take part in the next world cup? He has achieved whatever he wanted to achieve in football. So why should he carry on playing anymore? Lionel Scaloni may want him in the squad, but even if he includes him a lot of questions will be asked. Another factor that may impact his participation is the fact that Messi no longer plays in one of the stronger leagues. At this point he represents Inter Miami, in Major League Soccer (MLS).
Will where he plays really influence the Argentine coach's decision to call him or not? I think not because Scaloni probably saw something else when calling him up but the question remains does Messi still want to play for Argentina? I was quite doubtful about that because he didn't look like a person who was very ambitious about setting records and so on, so when he didn't play in the next world cup it wasn't because he wasn't called up by the Argentine coach but because he chose to completely retire from the national team of his country, regarding all the achievements he has achieved while Ronaldo may still hope to play in the world cup to get it.
It doesn't have to be one that he wants to win, he already won one, he could just go to have fun, and doesn't matter that he may end up losing as well. This doesn't mean that he won't try to win, it just means that even if he tries to win but loses then it won't hurt as badly because he already got one, that's a very very important difference.
We know that Messi "may" end up playing, he will be about 38 or so when world cup happens in 2026, which is not all that bad and could be played, depends on if he wants to of course, but also it means that we are going to see him not be his best self anymore. I am sensing that the best thing for him would be to give t a chance and just avoid it if he feels like he should.
Plus, the better way would be making sure that he plays limited minutes, it allows the team to have him on the side and be a morale source that Messi is still there, but also limit his minutes to make sure that he doesn't get too tired because of his age.