Ex-players back Argentina to win World Cup

Panaji: Former football internationals S S Narayan, Fortunato Franco and Brahmanand Shankawalkar on Saturday said Lionel Messi’s Argentina could go on to regain the World Cup in South Africa.

At a seminar on the June 11-July 11 mega event, organised here by the Sports Journalists Federation of India, another ex-India striker Bruno Countinho was of the opinion that Spain had the best chance among the 32 competing teams to come out trumps. The quartet of panelists was unanimous that England’s Wayne Rooney, Messi, Portugal’s Christiano Ronaldo and Ivory Coast’s Didier Drogba would emerge as the stars of the tournament. The panelists expected a number of upsets through the first two rounds of the eagerly awaited tournament.Talking about the poor ranking of India in world football, all four were unanimous that only a total overhaul of the system in the country, including the administration, was the only way to improve things. PTI