By Joel García on December 14, 2022
Argentine soccer greats Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi
From the first line here I’m going to make it clear that I don’t follow soccer with the same passion as many of my colleagues and friends. Nor am I a Barcelona or Madrid fan. I admire the sport for the art and feelings it raises to such incredible levels. Of the players, I admit I am a fan of Lionel Messi not because he is number one in the world (which he is), but because I am a passionate admirer of Maradona and no one comes closer than Messi to that soccer God.
I dared to predict in a postgraduate course on Sports Journalism in Mar del Plata, 15 days before the World Cup, that the final could be France-Argentina. And it seems that I lucked out in my predictions that day. However, I do not want to write about that today, but about two gestures or goals that few saw that went unnoticed among so much magic of Argentina and Messi in this World Cup in Qatar.
The first one refers to the penalty shootout against the Netherlands. After the last goal that would give Argentina the pass to the semifinals, all the players went to celebrate and in that run to the celebration, Messi took another direction. He went right to where Argentina’s goalkeeper Dibu Martinez was and crouched down next to him, hugged him and until they stood up together he did not leave the spot.
It was in his capacity as the captain to honor one of the architects of that encounter. It was greatness shared with simplicity and opportunity. It was the loan of happiness from 10 to 1. And vice versa. One had scored two goals. The other had stopped them. When the rest of the team realized where Messi was they applauded and ran to their leader. Only a few photos captured that moment that gives an account of that goal that does not go to the books but to the heart, to the inspiration of a team.
The second gesture Messi was after the goal he scored with diabolical moves from almost the middle of the field and that he put perfectly at the feet of Julian Alvarez for the last of 3 goals against Croatia. I remembered that great chronicle: Messi is a dog, by journalist Hernán Casciari. He never looked up from the ball, never, never, but he knew where to pass it at the very second that everyone thought he would take the shot.
If you look at the video, almost simultaneous to Julian Alvarez’s goal, the Argentine captain was already running with his hands in a victory cross toward the back of the opponent’s goal. He had built this victory, dreamed it and shared it in front of the eyes of the whole world. But he did not want to take any more credit than that. Rarely in soccer does one have that gift: to be a protagonist even without scoring a goal, just by drawing it. Maradona did it with Valdano in 1986. Messi has now done it with Julian in 2022.
I told you that I do not write about soccer with the passion of many colleagues and friends. But this lamp that Messi rubs on the field forces us to recognize how special he is. They are the goals that are not seen but will remain in the memory of Argentines, of many Latin Americans, and why not, of those of us in Cuba who feel identified with that light blue and white shirt.
Source: Cubadebate, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – US