"Argentina was always synonymous with football," Leo Messi says in a video prepared by the Argentinian Football Federation.
"Synonymous with encouragement, hugs, full stands. For this reason, for us putting football on pause is much deeper. Like when you were a kid and they asked you to put down the ball for a while and stay in your house. Take everything away from me, but if you can, leave me football.
"Because football is hope, it is joy. Because it allows us to celebrate together, even though we are apart. Because it gives us that. And it is also suffering, of course, but they are part of football and we love it as it is.
"And if I can say one thing as an Argentine, it is that we always find a way to get up and come back stronger. Now that it's time to go back, we're ready for the ball to roll again. Ready for the light blue and white."
