This man named Lionel Messi.
One night, Ernesto Valverde could not stop staring at him. Many thoughts flashed through his mind by the time he looked at a player in his team, Lionel Messi.
During his time as a coach in Spain, including when he coached Athletic Bilbao, he had heard and felt many wonders and magical things carried out by players from Rosario, Argentina. In his memory, it was clearly displayed how Messi made the Bilbao defense organized just like that.
“I don’t know what I have to say about Messi. He is an extraordinary player with a high level of intelligence. “
“During the game, when people think nothing will happen, he is able to create something good for the team. That’s the figure of Lionel Messi,” Valverde said.
Since he was young, Messi was already familiar with miracles. Many people were trying to do research on Messi. One of which was Benjamin Morris who wrote on the Five-Thirty-Eight website. He once wrote the results of his research about the number of goals that Messi scored and in what way Messi scored the goal. At the end of the writing, he wrote one thing about Messi based on the results of his research in which he concluded Messi’s figure as “impossible.”
There have been too many wonders that Messi created on the green field. As Valverde revealed, he could change something that was impossible to be possible. Five titles of the world’s best players, the number of goals scored for Barcelona, the prestigious trophies he presented to Barcelona until his love and loyalty to the Catalans managed to prove to the world who Lionel Messi was.
Behind the darkness of his career, there is one story that makes Lionel Messi was downcast. The bitter story is about the World Cup trophy. We could say that the world of football owes a World Cup trophy to this great player.
Lionel Messi had to throw his dream of winning the 2018 World Cup after Argentina lost to France in the last 16 phase. In his fourth World Cup match, Messi had to accept a bitter defeat because Argentina lost 3-4 from France.
Messi first defended Argentina in the World Cup match in 2006. At that time, this attacker of the Barcelona team born June 24, 1987, was still 19 years old. Unfortunately, this Tango Team was only able to reach the quarter-finals.
Leo, Messi’s nickname, returned to defend Argentina in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Just like before, this national team was only able to finish in the quarter-final phase. In 2014 Messi had the opportunity to be able to reach his ideal trophy, but again, the World Cup still had not shown interest in meeting Lionel Messi. Argentina lost 1-0 to Germany in the 2014 World Cup peak match.
If you throwback on the story of the Argentine national team in reaching one place in Russia, the name Messi became the most popular name among other players. At that time, the Argentine coach, Jorge Sampaoli, revealed,
“The World Cup is like a gun that holds the head of Lionel Messi. If he is not a champion, he will be shot and die,”
“The football world owes a World Cup to Lionel Messi and we have a chance to help him in Russia,”
Argentina, along with other Latin American countries, played in the conmebol qualifying round. In this qualifying round, all teams met and showed that the conmebol qualification is a reflection of Latin America’s strength. Argentina barely escaped. They escaped because of Lionel Messi. In the last match, Argentina not only needed to win against Ecuador but also hoped that Chile and Peru or Colombia would not win. If La Albiceleste was in a draw or lose, its position was also threatened by Paraguay.
In the end, Messi scored three goals. Argentina won 3-1 to Ecuador. Chile lost 0-3 to Brazil which made Chile fail to qualify for the World Cup. Peru drew 1-1 with Colombia and both of them escaped. Paraguay lost 1-0 to their visitors, Venezuela. These results made Argentina went to the next round by finishing third.
Looking from the incident, again, Lionel Messi became the only best player of the Argentine national team to be able to win a place in Russia. However, his struggle was in vain after Argentina failed to prove itself in the highest football event. Unfortunately, Lionel Messi didn’t play brilliantly. There were many moments made him became the cause of Argentina’s failure on the field.
Shining with Barcelona, it had not been able to actually made Messi gave glory to Argentina.
The World Cup has not become Lionel Messi’s destiny. There was always be a story about the bad luck he has experienced.
