Argentina s Mascherano announces retirement

Kazan July 1 (IANS) Argentina s veteran defensive midfielder Javier Mascherano announced his retirement from international football on Saturday after his team s 3-4 loss to France in the World Cup Round-of-16.
"The whole story is over " said Mascherano who is Argentina s most capped player in history with 146 appearances reports Xinhua news agency.
"From now on I ll be just another fan of the Argentina team. It s over. The dream has finished."
Regarding the match in which teenager Kylian Mbpappe s brace helped France overcome register a come-from-behind victory the 34-year-old Hebei China Fortune player said: "We gave everything to the end. It was a crazy game where we did not start well before we recovered and turned it around. But their equalizer hurt us a lot."

--IANS pur/qd