MESSI QUITS
Tearful superstar turns his back on Argentina at just 29
LIONEL MESSI will feel a great weight lifted from his shoulders now he has given up on leading Argentina to a major trophy but the shadow of the man who did manage it — Diego Maradona — will be cast longer than ever over his legacy this morning.
Maradona dropped a grenade on Argentina’s Copa America hopes two weeks ago when, apparently off microphone, he told Pele that he thought Messi did not have the personality to be a leader.
Conspiracy theorists believe Maradona knew the microphone was on. Was it an attempt to motivate Messi? Or was it another dig in the ribs from one legend to another? The old master now knows that Messi will never match him on the international stage.
Messi did his best to drive his country to a Copa America win, helping them to the final but they lost on penalties to Chile, with the Barcelona star blasting his spot-kick over the bar.
‘For many people the essence of Argentine football contains kilos of Maradona and grams of Messi,’ wrote Sebastian Fest recently in La Nacion, an Argentine daily.
Fest, author of The Messi Mystery, was defending the Barcelona No 10 against Maradona’s preposterous suggestion he had no substance. But he was also stating a fact that, for the national side’s most passionate supporters, there is still only one God and his name is Diego, not Leo.
Messi’s patriotism, as much as his leadership, has always been questioned. That is what comes from never having been idolised as a Boca, River Plate or Independiente player before heading to Europe. No matter that despite the fact he moved to Catalonia aged 13 he turned down Spain’s advances to make him one of theirs.
But that is not enough to convince many in his homeland. Had he lifted silverware, everything would have changed but it has eluded him.
‘It’s four finals already, it’s not for me,’ Messi said as he announced his international retirement. ‘I worked so hard for it. It was the thing I wanted more than anything. But it just wasn’t to be.’
He won gold with Argentina at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and the Under 20 World Cup in 2005, all of which seemed to hail the dawn of a glorious future for Argentina.
But he has been a beaten finalist four times since. He was a runnerup in the Copa America in 2007, 2015 and 2016 and in the 2014 World Cup. Sunday’s final was his third failure at the final hurdle of an international tournament in as many years and the emotion was too much as, through tears, he told the world he was quitting after the final whistle. Team-mate Sergio Romero hoped there was some room for reconsideration, saying: ‘I think he said it because he was emotional.’
It is true that Messi has been on the brink before but with close friend Javier Mascherano also considering his international future this may be the point of no return.
When asked whether his decision was final on Sunday night, he said: ‘I think so. That is what I feel right now.’
Ahead of the 2018 World Cup there will be attempts to get him to change his mind and whoever’s task it is to take Argentina into that tournament, their first job will be to talk Messi around. At 29, his international retirement comes scandalously early.
He was crying on the pitch at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, after missing in the penalty shootout as Argentina were beaten 4-2 by Chile. Football should shed a tear too if he sticks to his decision and we never see him in an Argentina shirt again.