#2 Lionel Messi
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While his biggest rival, Cristiano Ronaldo, succeeded in helping his national team break their duck and win their first-ever major international honour, the same cannot be said about Lionel Messi.
The fleet-footed Argentine has captured the imagination of one and all with his skills and his ability to unlock defences at will. However, Messi has had a far more successful club career than he has had one with his national team, due to many reasons which will be touched at a later point in time.
Messi’s first heartbreak with the national team came in 2010 when Argentina were thumped out of the World Cup in the quarter-final by a rampant Germany. However, it wasn’t until 2014 that he understood the true meaning of despair.
In the final, Messi’s Argentina came up against Germany and after having missed numerous chances to kill the game were undone by a Mario Gotze goal. The diminutive Argentine had guided his team to the brink but couldn’t get them over the line and the World Cup that he desired so badly escaped from his grasp. A World Cup win that would have cemented his position as the greatest of all time.
He did win the Golden Ball for being the best player of the tournament, but he failed to win what he was hoping for. He was seen gazing at the World Cup from mere inches, and the photograph was even voted the best sports image of 2014.
Having failed in 2014, Messi led Argentina at the 2015 Copa America looking to end La Albiceleste’s international drought of 12 years, however, once again he tasted defeat in the final, this time against neighbours Chile courtesy of a penalty shootout loss.
He didn’t give up. He prepared, he guided, and he led – almost admirably – and took Argentina to the brink once again in the Copa America Centenario in 2016 but was denied once again by Chile, again through a penalty shootout loss and this well and truly broke Messi. The fleet-footed Argentine who had started on the quest to conquer the world had failed on 3 successive finals in 3 consecutive years. He was in tears, tears that he couldn’t control with the emotions that overwhelmed him as he questioned himself – what more must I do to win a trophy with my national team?
In the angst of his 3rd successive loss, he even announced his premature retirement from international football, a decision he has since then gone back on. But his wait, Argentina’s wait for that elusive World Cup continues a World Cup which will surely cement his legacy as the greatest to have ever laced a boot. For now, he waits...
