Former Uruguay captain Diego Lugano believes that had Lionel Messi been born on the northern banks of the Rio de la Plata, Uruguay would have strolled to back-to-back World Cup glory.
Messi has competed in four World Cups for Argentina, falling once at the last-16 stage, twice in the quarters and, in 2014, battling through to the final where the Albiceleste lost out to Germany.
But if he had Uruguay's famously ferocious and committed stars at his back, Lugano argues, the story would have been very different.
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What was said?
"If Messi were playing for Uruguay in that 2010 World Cup, we would have won it," Lugano, who made 95 appearances for the Celeste as a hard-tackling centre-back before hanging up his boots following Brazil 2014, told students of the TEA Journalism School in Buenos Aires.