FOOTBALL WORLD CUP

Messi lifts the world cup trophy after defeating France

by admin on | 2022-12-15 18:14:00 Last Updated by natscott on2024-05-18 10:33:57

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“It is gratitude for a such a great moment of joy that you have given to so many people and I hope you take these words to heart because I believe that is more important than winning a World Cup.”

Her words will more than likely resonate with the vast majority of the Argentine population as Messi’s performances for the national team in recent years have lifted him to a godlike status.

“The only way in which that love would change, is for the better if they win,” Argentine journalist Santi Bauzá tells CNN.

“Because I feel that what he has achieved so far at this World Cup, basically doing what his fiercest critics have been demanding from him for so long, to finally become that man who can solve every single game for Argentina, who can appear at the toughest moments and always, always deliver.

“It was kind of like an impossible standard to meet, and he still met it. So I feel like this specific World Cup will keep hanging on in the memories of Argentines whatever happens on Sunday.”

The weight of expectation

However, it hasn’t always been that way and Messi has endured his share of heartbreak in an Argentina shirt.

Three defeats in major finals in the space of just three years – the 2014 World Cup and 2015 and 2016 Copa Américas – unsurprisingly wounded Messi, causing him to announce his retirement from international football.

For parts of Messi’s Argentina career, particularly in some of the earlier years, there was a lingering narrative that Argentine fans were indifferent towards their star player, perhaps even cold, amid accusations that he never gave his all for the famous blue and white shirt, or even that he felt more Catalan than Argentine after moving to Barcelona at such a young age.

“The key word I think here is minority,” Bauzá says. “But the truth is that there was a time in which there was a group of people here in Argentina that thought Messi was probably not fit to wear the shirt of the national team because they felt he was not Argentine enough.