The debate is closed. We close the books. Lionel Messi is the greatest soccer player of all time. Leo is a master. He demonstrated it to us again on Sunday, in the World Cup final, the only title that had eluded him so far. An anthology final, won on penalties by Argentina over France, which saw the number 10 shine with all its fire, like a matador at the top of his game.
For some recalcitrants, he missed this World Cup, like another legendary pocket striker, his compatriot Diego Maradona, to finish cementing his legend. It is done. The irony is that the bigger one was almost too small. In his early teens, an Argentinian endocrinologist discovered that Lionel Messi suffered from a significant hormonal disease. If nothing were done, according to the doctor, he would not measure more than 1.50 m (less than five feet) as an adult.
Growth hormone treatments were expensive (about $900 a month) for a working-class Argentinian family in the midst of an economic crisis. Also, Lionel’s father turned to Europe and the young 13-year-old prodigy left his hometown of Rosario in the summer of 2000 for Barcelona, where the Barça training center took care of everything.
A symbolic contract was signed on a napkin in the bar of a Barcelona tennis club, and the whole family – parents, brothers and sisters – left Rosario, 300 kilometers from Buenos Aires, for the Catalan metropolis.
Until his transfer to Paris last year, it was in Barcelona that Messi spent his whole life since adolescence, so much so that in Argentina, he was considered for a long time more as a Catalan exile than as a country child. This is no longer the case, especially since his coronation in the Copa America against Brazil last year. And it will never be again after his victory in Doha on Sunday.
The man nicknamed “La Pulga” (the chip) was often seen as a shy young man off the field, lacking the leadership necessary to lead the Argentinian troops to a victory in the World Cup. That has changed in recent years, as Messi has become more and more assertive.
PHOTO KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Lionel Messi
Either way, he’s always led by example on the pitch, where he takes control of the game. usually his opponents speechless. His passes delivered to the millimeter, his unstoppable free kicks and his vision of the game out of the ordinary give him, even at 35, a huge advantage over his opponents.
Rather humble by nature, Messi has already declared that he will never come close to Maradona. But seven Golden Balls for the best player in the world later, with a gold medal at the Olympic Games (in Beijing), four Champions League titles, a Copa America and a World Cup, he seems to have surpassed his idol. of youth.
For years, some Argentinians have however criticized him for not replicating his club exploits (91 goals for FC Barcelona in 2012 alone) for the national team. He was three times unfortunate finalist of the Copa America, in 2007, 2015 and 2016. In 2014, in Brazil, he had to be satisfied with the medal of vice-world champion, after a 1-0 defeat against Germany .
His crestfallen face after the game, waiting for his silver medal, said everything about his disillusionment. His Golden Ball for the best player of the tournament seemed to him more cumbersome than anything else. Like the golden boot of Kylian Mbappé’s top scorer on Sunday, after his hat-trick in the final. A small consolation. “We are going to regret it all our lives,” Messi said a year after the final, his face grimacing after watching the highlights of the match.
Disenchanted after a third international final lost in three years, he had hinted, after missing his shot on goal in the final of the centenary edition of the Copa America in 2016, that he was ending his career international.
He had perhaps ended up believing those who claimed that his destiny in the Argentine selection was to end up on the second step of the podium. And by understanding that if he failed to add a World Cup to his record, he would never reach the mythical status of Maradona in the hearts of Argentine supporters. No one is a prophet in his own country. Even when you’re a genius prophet. Especially when you’ve never played in a club for Boca Juniors or River Plate…
Lionel Messi has always been faithful to the Albiceleste. He refused, at the end of adolescence, the invitation of the Spanish team, preferring to commit definitively with the selection of his native country. If he had joined his Barça teammates with La Roja, he would undoubtedly have been crowned world champion in 2010.
Many still doubted him when in his first season with PSG, disoriented by his involuntary exile from FC Barcelona, he seemed to be only a shadow of himself. They were wrong. Messi has regained his splendor since the fall, forming with Neymar and Kylian Mbappé – his successor as the best player in the world – the most formidable attacking trident in Europe.
He will be able to drive away all his saddest memories in blue and white. He warded off bad luck. The image that we will retain of him, after this anthology final, is that of a fulfilled man, who embraces the World Cup after having joyfully picked up his Golden Ball as player of the tournament. The coronation of a great. The greatest of all.