Penalties. Hard to believe they weren’t Lionel Messi’s thing once. (More Football News)
Playing his guts out for country. That wasn’t his jam either, critics said. Messi was all poetry and beautiful goals when playing for his former club Barcelona, but not for the national team, they felt.
In the World Cup final on Sunday, and indeed the entire World Cup, Messi combined both – taking penalties and playing his legs and lungs out – to permanently silence doubters.
In the heart-stopping final against France, in a game that couldn’t be any tougher on mind and body, Messi converted twice from the spot, scored once from the field, and assisted one with a deft flick of the famous left foot. In a match that suddenly swung from one-sided to a seesawing thriller, Argentina finally came through in the penalty shootout 4-2, after the teams were 3-3 at the end of extra-time.
For the last couple of years, Messi hasn’t been his old, goody-goody self. In 2021, he inspired Argentina to victory in Copa America, his first trophy for Argentina.
At half-time in the final, he made a rousing speech, the kind not many expected from him.
In Qatar, Messi was even more feral. There was a growl and bite about him, accentuated by his full beard. On the field, he threw himself into tackles. Off it, he tackled those who annoyed him. After Argentina defeated the Netherlands in an ill-tempered quarterfinal, he told Louis van Gaal, the Dutch coach, that he talked too much. Van Gaal had earlier been mildly critical of Messi’s reduced capabilities at age 35.
To the Dutch player Wout Weghorst, who was looking at Messi as the Argentine prepared to give an interview, he barked, “Que mira, bobo?’ (What are you looking at, fool?), inspiring memes and t-shirts.
It was unfair. According to reports, Weghorst just wanted to shake Messi’s hand. But that’s the kind of ‘don’t mess with me’ mood Messi was in at the World Cup.
Messi scored seven goals in Qatar, four of which were penalties. Penalties are not as easy as they appear. But Messi makes them look simple, just as he makes much of football look simple. He takes the goalkeeper-dependent approach, jogging to the ball, delaying his shot till the last moment to get some cue as to which way the keeper might jump. It’s proof of his courage that even in the shootout in the final, with France having the momentum and his dream at stake, he took the same approach and calmly rolled one past Hugo Lloris. Most of Messi’s penalties at the World Cup were like that and only a brave man could pull off such a high-risk heist again and again.
Ever since Messi was a young boy, he has carried the burden of constant comparison with Diego Maradona, the original icon of Argentine football. Both were short, outrageously gifted and left-footed. But while Maradona exuded personality in everything he did, good or bad, Messi kept a low profile off the field.
And then there was the nagging ‘trophies for country’ question. Maradona won the World Cup at age 25. Messi, till well into his 30s, had zero trophies in the Argentina shirt.
Everything has changed now. Messi’s career is complete. He has convincingly overtaken his great rival, Cristiano Ronaldo. And Argentina have the World Cup they had been waiting 36 years for since Maradona’s exploits in the Mexican summer of 1986. Indians who grew up in the 80s remember staying up late in the night to watch that edition of the World Cup on Doordarshan. On Sunday, we saw Messi emulate Maradona.
Fireworks went off in parts of Mumbai after Argentina’s second goal. Coincidence? Perhaps. But chances are it wasn’t. Argentina inspire that kind of devotion in India and all parts of the world.
The irony is that such devotion for a team is often triggered by individual players. And in the case of Argentina, those two players have been Maradona and Messi.
Overall, FIFA World Cup 2022 disproved TS Eliot. It ended with a bang, not a whimper. Controversies ranging from FIFA corruption to Qatar’s human rights violations engulfed the tournament at the start. But once the matches started, the other issues were temporarily forgotten. The World Cup experience is a mix of great football and joyous atmosphere. Many had wondered if Qatar, without much football tradition or experience, and with its stifling rules, would be able to deliver. But it did.
And Messi and Argentina did them the ultimate favour by winning, ensuring that World Cup 2022 will remain long in memory.
