Boca fell to 13th in the Argentine Autumn League last weekend, losing to Independiente and Riquelme's second half was mediocre...... On Tuesday, the news broke on the TV program of Argentina's 13th TV station that Riquelme announced his withdrawal from the Argentine national team.

Riquelme said into the microphone in a firm tone: "My national team career is over, I'm ready to watch the World Cup on TV. The reason for withdrawing from the national team is: I don't think the same way as him [Maradona], we don't have the same morals. He's the current manager of the national team, so we can't work together. ”

Riquelme announced the breaking news in a short sentence, and as he did last time he withdrew from the national team, he made it clear why, this time due to a conflict with Maradona that he finally quit the blue and white. The Argentines who saw this scene in front of the television were shocked, and soon the news of his announcement of his retirement from the national team spread throughout Argentina and the world.

Riquelme tried to explain in a soothing tone what exactly went wrong between him and Maradona. "Last week, Maradona made some irresponsible comments about the way I played, and it was hard for me to accept them. I wanted to be involved in the attack like Messi, Sergio Aguero and Carlos Tevez, but Maradona's words hurt me so much that I decided to quit the national team out of concern for the team. Riquelme said he had made a deliberate decision, "I put on an Argentina shirt and let me die, and it was very uncomfortable for me to watch the national team play in the World Cup on TV. ”

So, what exactly did Maradona say last week that led Riquelme to make this astonishing decision? It turned out that in an interview with TYC TV last week, Maradona made a negative assessment of Riquelme in a very spicy tone, and the old horse thought that Riquelme's enthusiasm for participating in the competition was not high, and his decision in the last 20 meters was not strong, he said: "If Riquelme is in good physical condition, he will still be useful to me." My request to Riquelme is that he needs to decide the race in the last 20 metres, which requires him to be more involved with Messi, Sergio Aguero and Carlos Tevez. If he's always dragging his feet and only knows how to receive the ball from Demichelis [at centre-back], or just going around Gago and Mascherano, Riquelme is of no use to me. I need Riquelme to be more involved in the attack. ”

In addition, Riquelme believes that his position in the national team is no longer important due to Maradona's coming to power, and Maradona revealed that Riquelme was not called up because Boca was going to play in the Copa Libertadores, but Riquelme's statement is a different version: "Ischia (Boca manager) informed me very early that he was allowed to go to the national team for friendly matches and that he wanted me to play for the national team. But then I found out on the radio that my name was not on the training camp list of the national team, to be precise, I knew it from Bilardo (the leader of the Argentine national team). It's a bit strange because I know all about myself from the radio or from the radio, and Maradona never called me. ”

As soon as the news of Riquelme's announcement of his retirement from the national team broke, it immediately shook coach Maradona, also on TV 13, saying: "This is very sad news, I have to say that Riquelme made a bad decision, but I will not cry about it and beg him 'come back, come back'."

Will it be the same as last time, quitting the national team and being called up again by Basile, is there a possibility that Riquelme's decision this time will be changed? Maradona seemed to have a foreword about this last week, saying: "Those players who quit the national team should not think about coming back!" "Is this a warning to Riquelme? There is media speculation in Argentina that something happened between Maradona and Riquelme during the course of a week. It was on that show that Maradona criticized Riquelme's recent performances, which led to Riquelme's eventual decision to withdraw from the national team.

Interestingly, just minutes before Riquelme's announcement of his retirement from the national team, Maradona had just announced his World Cup qualifiers for Venezuela and Bolivia, and Riquelme's name was still prominently listed. When asked by reporters if Riquelme could retire from the national team, Maradona replied: "I never thought about it, I talked to him and he said he wanted to play for Argentina. Now I don't know what he thinks, but there are still many games waiting for him in the future, the national team is waiting for him to take command, and we all expect Riquelme to be the leader of the national team and the key man who passes the lethal ball. ”

Is it Riquelme's fault for the whole affair, or is it Maradona's fault? Outsiders don't know yet, but one thing is certain: Riquelme didn't save a little face for Maradona this time, and his Argentine national team career may really be over.