'Difficult to continue': Paredes' Argentina future in doubt after 10-match ban

Leandro Paredes has admitted his international future hangs in the balance after FIFA handed him a 10-match ban, with the Argentina midfielder conceding it will be 'difficult' to continue representing the world champions. The revelation, first reported by BBC Sport, sends a tremor through the Albiceleste camp just months before they begin the defence of their crown at the 2026 World Cup in North America. Paredes, a trusted lieutenant of head coach Lionel Scaloni and a member of the squad that lifted the trophy in Qatar in 2022, now faces the gravest threat of his international career. With Argentina's fixture list between now and June dominated by friendlies, there is a genuine risk that the suspension could spill over into the tournament itself — a prospect that appears to have shaken the 31-year-old to his core. 'It is going to be difficult for me to continue,' Paredes said, in comments that stopped short of a definitive retirement but painted a picture of a man weighing up whether the fight back into the fold is one worth waging. For a player who has been an understated yet integral part of Argentina's golden era — a Copa América winner in 2021 and 2024 alongside that unforgettable night in Lusail — the sanction is a bitter blow. Paredes has long offered Scaloni a streetwise, controlling presence at the base of midfield, complementing the industry of Enzo Fernández, Alexis Mac Allister and Rodrigo De Paul. For Scaloni, the conundrum is as delicate as it is pressing. The world champions boast one of international football's deepest midfield pools, yet losing a player who knows the system inside out would force a reshuffle at precisely the moment stability matters most. Whether the punishment can be appealed, or whether enough warm-up fixtures exist to serve the suspension before June, may yet shape the final outcome. And so a squad chasing history — no nation has won back-to-back World Cups since Brazil in 1962 — must confront an uncomfortable question: has one of its most reliable servants already played his final game for his country? For now, the door remains ajar rather than closed, but the shadow of a 10-match ban has turned Paredes' Argentina future from a certainty into a question mark. This article is based on original reporting by BBC Sport.