Lionel Messi is bored of football, says ex-Barcelona assistant manager Ángel Cappa

Former Assistant manager Ángel Cappa: “That love of the game, that passion that makes him go and look for the ball on the left, on the right, in the middle, take players on, beat one, then two … I see Messi has lost that.”

Former Barcelona assistant manager Ángel Cappa feels Barcelona forward Lionel Messi has lost his love and passion for the game.

“To play football you need boundless passion, like Messi had, like the great players like Maradona … any important player in the Primer Division: Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets,” he spoke in an interview with Catalan radio station, La Xarxa.

“You need enormous passion, you need that energy that comes from an absolute love of the game… but the day they played Valencia, I couldn’t understand how a player could play football so dispassionately. And especially him, because if we look at a game of his from three or four years ago, there was that craziness, that passion that he had for playing. And I don’t know why or for what reason, but that is coming to an end.”

“That love of the game, that passion that makes him go and look for the ball on the left, on the right, in the middle, take players on, beat one, then two … I see Messi has lost that.”

“He has extraordinary quality, he’s wonderful and at any moment he can come up with a wonderful play, but it’s as if he has been married for 15 years to football and got bored of it.”

Ángel Cappa, 67, worked as an assistant manager to César Luis Menotti in the 1980s.

“I’m talking about Messi, but Barcelona have also lost that passion,” he went on to add. “Before, you couldn’t miss even a second of the 90 minutes because there was always something. Now Barca have the ball, sure, and they do things now and again, but they have also lost that boundless enthusiasm they had before.”