Image by Cristian Tarzi.
When last Sunday Lionel Messi left the playing field because of a serious injury in the final match of the Copa América against Colombia (that Argentina won) and soon afterwards began to cry inconsolably, the entire world cried with him. Such is the charisma of a player who is considered by many as the best soccer player in the world. How to explain Messi’s enormous distress, in the face of what is usually a frequent event during a soccer match? A possible explanation is that Messi was disappointed at not being able to help his teammates in the critical final game against the Colombian team. Another explanation is that the injury he had, caused him an almost unbearable pain. Argentina’s coach Lionel Scaloni had a different explanation. He ventured that Messi does not like to be taken out of a game, especially one as critical as the last defining game on an important contest, but he wants to play all the games until the end.
At the beginning of Messi’s career as a soccer player, the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano expressed his opinion about him. Galeano wrote, “Messi makes me dream, and that’s why I love to see him play. I am the author of a theory about him, although it has no scientific basis. I think Messi is a unique case in the history of humanity, because he is someone capable of having a ball inside his foot. It has always been said that Maradona had the ball tied to his foot, but Messi has the ball inside, and that is scientifically inexplicable. They chase him, 7, 11, 22 rivals try to take the ball out of him but there is no way to take it out. Why is this so? Because they look for it outside his foot, but the ball is inside. Now how can a ball fit inside a foot? It is an unintelligible phenomenon, but it is the truth, he carries it inside his foot.”
David Konzevik, a famous Argentine economist and former soccer player, explains one of Messi’s greatest goals, “Messi’s goal was more than exciting. One felt it was a unique moment, as Maradona’s goal against the English. When Messi takes the ball, there is more suspense in the football field than in a Hitchcock movie. And then, the thunder of the goal.” What is Messi’s secret? Johan Cruyff, a Dutch soccer legend, explains. “The secret,” he says, “is the speed of his rhythm change; Messi changes direction every half meter. When the defense takes a step, he has taken two in two different directions. His mastery of the space-time relationship is his great skill; he always starts first and this allows him not to be caught.” In the last years of his career Messi continues to play, and the universal affection that he has won is expressed in the most distant places on the planet. In work missions that I have carried out in several African countries I saw many children with the Argentine National Team jersey with the number 10, Messi’s number. Messi wants to play every game to the end, no matter how tired he may be or how serious is his injury. To see Messi crying inconsolably because he cannot continue playing a game only demonstrates that he is simply human.
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