Its; a crying shame for Messi
LIONEL LET DOWN IN PURSUIT OF GLORY
THE whole of the football world has been laughing at Argentina in the wake of their shambolic World Cup campaign so far.
When they suffered a humbling 3-0 defeat to Croatia last week to leave their hopes of reaching the knockout stages hanging by a thread, sympathy was a little thin on the ground – especially in England.
It was all too much for Diego Maradona, who was sitting in the stands with the pain etched across his face.
But perhaps there was more to his tears than just an instant reaction to a crushing loss.
Perhaps it dawned on him, like it has the rest of us, that – barring a miracle recovery – we will never see Lionel Messi lift the biggest prize in football.
Encouraging someone like Messi to retire from international football would have been a bit like telling William Shakespeare to put down his quill, or Leonardo da Vinci to bin his brush. But the time has come.
Messi quit the international game in June 2016 but then reversed his decision two months later – and it has proved to be a big mistake.
Superheroes like him believe nothing is impossible and the image of him lifting the World Cup must be burned in his brain.
The achievement would be the fitting finale to what has been a truly staggering career.
Even if Argentina beat Nigeria tomorrow and make it out of their group, the odds look stacked against a dysfunctional Argentina side getting to the final again as they did four years ago.
The harsh truth is that Messi’s failed pursuit of the one trophy he’s craved most of all will leave a permanent question mark next to his name in the history books.
There is a picture of Messi aged just five, holding up a silver cup he’d won with his first club Abanderado Grandoli in Rosario, where he was born.
From that moment he wanted to go on and win the gold one every footballer dreams about.
Losing a game doesn’t change the fact Messi remains a genius. Football greatness shouldn’t be defined by 90 minutes. It has been a privilege to watch him and he remains the best player on the planet.
His biggest rival Cristiano Ronaldo is fighting for the Golden Boot, one goal behind England’s Harry Kane, and is looking forward to a place in the next round with Portugal.
But Messi remains the more naturally gifted player, less manufactured and moulded than Ronaldo.
Argentina are so bad that even Messi’s Godgiven talents can’t seem to help them, unlike the 1986 side which Maradona carried on his back to win the ultimate prize.
Messi hasn’t been able to do this and now looks like he never will. He’s had four goes at it now and not succeeded. He was 31 yesterday and will not be around for the next World Cup in Qatar in 2022.
He has scored 64 goals in 126 appearances for Argentina but never won silverware with them. The closest he came was losing the World Cup final to Germany in Brazil in 2014.
Messi will go down as an all-time great. But to be considered the greatest of them all, doesn’t that person need to boast the greatest prize of all on his CV, like Maradona or Pele?
Don’t cry for Argentina, just shed a tear for someone who found himself born into a team that didn’t deserve him.