Clearly a lot of football superstars are under pressure to win the upcoming FIFA World Cup. But Lionel Messi is one of the players under the most pressure heading into the tournament. So the greater you are, the bigger the burden you are expected to carry on your shoulders.
Messi’s club career with FC Barcelona has been absolutely outstanding so far. He has achieved every possible award as a member of that historic football club. He won the La Liga, the Champions League, the Copa Del Rey and the Ballon d’Or (4 times). He also has 243 goals to his name for his club. There is nothing more you can ask of him. His international career has also been great. But it does not compare to what he has accomplished as a member of FC Barcelona.
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His international career résumé includes the Under-20 World Cup win in 2005 when he was only 17 and the Gold Medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Other than those two, he hasn’t accomplished anything bigger. Now is the time for the 26-year old megastar to win the big thing. No, to try and win the biggest tournament on earth.
Over the past few years, Messi entered the debate of the greatest football players of all time. He is often compared to Pele, Diego Maradona and Zinedine Zidane. In terms of skill, he is right up there with those legends. There is no debate about that. If you talk about achievements, he falls behind them. But he is so close. The only thing that stands between Messi and being considered the greatest football player of all time is a World Cup victory. Zidane has won it once in 1998. Maradona, his former coach has also won it once in 1986 (including the Hand of God). Pele has won it three times in 1958, 1962 and 1970.
Football is a team game. Players don’t win games single-handedly much less a world cup. They need a good team around them and a good coach who can guide them. Messi has both of those in abundance when he plays for Barcelona. He has Neymar, Xavi, Iniesta and other great players around him. As the best player of the team, he has led them to several victories. But as a member of the Argentina football team, Messi does not have those luxuries. He does have stars like Sergio Agüero, Angel Di Maria and Gonzalo Higuain but they’re not as great as the stars he played with at Barcelona. Even Pele, Maradona and Zidane needed support from the stars around them.
Adding to Messi’s burden is the fact that he hails from Argentina, a nation where football players are more than mere athletes. So there is that extra load of living upto the fans’ expectations. He was a beginner in 2006 and wasn’t expected to show much impact in the world cup. His brilliance grew by leaps and bounds since then. By 2009, at a tender age of 21, he was already a star. So, fans anticipated that there were great things ahead for Argentina before the 2010 World Cup. But he still couldn’t guide his team to the expected destination.
Since early 2013, injuries have kept him in and out of his Barcelona team. Due to that, he had a lost a bit of explosiveness that we are so accustomed to seeing from him. He appears to be free from those nagging injuries now heading into this year’s mega event.
Messi is only 26 years old right now and will be turning 27 on June 24. He will be over 30 for his next two World Cup appearances. But his time is now. He is in his prime. The last time Argentina has won the world cup was when Maradona lifted the trophy 28 years ago. Since then, the football-crazy fans of Argentina have been restless. They will be cheering him now. I will be cheering him now. Winning the world cup would put Messi at an unreachable level. But a defeat could damage his legacy.
Regardless, he will still be considered in the same class as Pele, Maradona and Zidane. Argentina would still love him. The world would still love him. His greatness will live on forever.
But it is time for Lionel Messi to do justice for that jersey #10.
