The epic of the Ball King

Messi celebrates with the Hercules Cup held high
Many years later, when Messi recalls winning the World Cup at Russell Stadium, I wonder if he will still think of his defeat in Maracana in Rio de Janeiro. At that time, a Chinese photographer won the Jos é award for the blank look in his eyes as he swept the Hercules Cup.
Many years after being killed by Gooze, Messi often woke up in the middle of the night, recalling the details of the game at that time, completely insomnia.
He told Soltini, his former agent, whom he had not seen for a decade, adding his own understanding: “this is because Messi’s favorite team is the Argentine national team, surpassing Barcelona, surpassing Newell’s old boys.”
Messi was 27 years old that year and did almost everything. He participated in the World Cup as captain and was established as an absolute leader. He scored three consecutive goals against Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iran and Nigeria in the group stage, and DiMaria beat Switzerland in extra time. When individual play was limited, the team was able to break through Belgium and the Netherlands, and the luck was in place. Argentina has reached the World Cup final again since the 1990 World Cup.
In the final, 100000 Argentines poured into Rio de Janeiro. Winning the championship at Maracana Stadium would be the perfect ending-at least, you don’t have to be under pressure for another eight years.
It was Gerzer who made it in the final. History is fixed, the world sighs, Messi said: “We will never have such a good chance to win the championship in our life.”
▎ 2014 Messi watched the Hercules Cup full of longing
Messi’s Argentina can not escape the fate of Germany, which has been improving for nearly 10 years.
The 18-year-old Messi was a bystander on the bench when he was first defeated by Germany in the 2006 World Cup. This Argentina is the Argentina of Riquelme. Messi’s playing order came after the well-known Tevez, and head coach Peckerman thought of high center Cruz at the critical moment.
The most reticent young man in the dressing room scored a goal in the World Cup debut in the 6-0 win over Serbia and Montenegro, setting a record for Argentina’s youngest World Cup goalscorer.
Salorio, who has been on the Argentine coaching staff from the 2005 World Youth Championships to the 2006 World Cup, believes that Messi’s experience was more important to be “taught to be a human being”. Anyone can see Messi’s talent. But what the seniors want to teach him is the essence of Argentine football-“Maldad”. Don’t be too gentlemanly and win by despicable means.
After the World Cup in Germany, Barcelona’s sports director went to the Argentine national team to find out what you instilled in Messi to make him seem to be a different person.
As a matter of fact, Messi couldn’t be any worse. The benchmark of Argentine football is Maradona, a bad, domineering and beloved guy.
▎ 1978 Passarella lifted the Hercules Cup
Passarella, the iron-blooded defender who has won two World Cups in Argentina, is not convinced by anyone but Maradona in 1986. At the team pep rally before the World Cup, as captain, he shouted to Maradona in front of the whole team: “if you play football your way, we are World Cup champions; if you don’t take drugs, we are World Cup champions; if you can manage yourself and train as hard as we do, we are World Cup champions; do you understand?” We’re counting on you. ”
He concluded his speech succinctly: “if you don’t do it, I’ll beat you up.”
What happened in that World Cup became known to everyone later. Maradona became a leader in a rogue locker room.
At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Lionel Messi was the first person in Argentina to win the Golden Globe Award and was the absolute core of the national team. But he’s not a leader yet.
This year, the “King of the Ball” personally took the helm, and it turned out that he brought more gimmicks than substance. He brought in Peron, Palermo and other veterans of the town, determined to transform Messi into the organizer to let him replace the retired Riquelme role. But Argentina lost 4-0 to Germany in the 1/4 final. Messi played all the games and seemed to be struggling every minute, and he didn’t finish the World Cup.
The combination and handover of Argentina’s two greatest players is not like a story, but more like an accident.
The alliance of the two Argentine kings of ▎ ended in failure.
It is difficult for Argentines to vent their anger on Maradona, and they can even tolerate his playing with tickets. But instead they pinned all their hopes on Lionel Messi, who is experiencing a long history of defeat in the Argentine national team.
Messi not only failed to live up to expectations at the 2010 World Cup, but also ended the Copa America in a scribbled end. In 2007, Argentina lost to semi-regular Brazil in the Copa America final. In 2011, he lost to Uruguay on penalties in the semi-final.
Argentina seems to be cursed after three consecutive hits by Germany in the 2014 World Cup final in Brazil. In the 2015 Copa America final, the penalty shootout lost to Chile; a year later, the “Centennial Copa America” made the same mistake and lost to Chile again on penalties in the final, losing the final three years in a row. At that time, Chilean coach Pizzi angered the Argentines: “my generation cannot compare Messi with Maradona.”
At this time, there are many voices attacking Lionel Messi in Argentina. Messi was discouraged and announced his retirement from the national team.
If the plot ends here, Messi will be the permanent loser of Argentina. But Lionel Messi withdrew his retirement declaration a week later. “there are a lot of problems in Argentine football and I don’t want to create another one,” Messi said.
Lionel Messi was frustrated when he missed the championship in the 2016 Copa America final of ▎.
Grondona, the former president of the Argentine Football Association, died in 2014. No matter how controversial it is, Argentine football has remained top competitive during his 35 years under him. The power vacuum created by the death of Grondona sent Argentine football into a period of chaos until Tapia took office. During this period, Messi paid salaries for the Football Association staff, paid for travel for the national team, and carried it on and off the court.
Messi was 30 years old at this time, but he was still too good.
Every new Argentine star is expected to be the “new Maradona”, Ortega, Aimar, Saviola, Tevez. Closest to the “King of the Ball” template is Tevez, a bad boy from the street, who is also loyal to Boca youth, whether he goes to Europe or China, and always misses Argentina.
But Messi’s childhood idol is Aimar, from the heart of the Millionaire club Riverbed, with a handsome face, elven trays, a peaceful temper and a mind almost as fragile as his body. Indeed, Messi was born not to be Maradona. He was born into a working family in Rosario. His father, Jorge, was a small director of a steel mill and a part-time coach in a football club. His family was moderate and at peace with the rest of the world, which made Messi clever and humble.
After all, the good boy captured the hearts of the people and became a leader in the way of a good boy. This way is called companionship-no matter how long the trough is, he is always there. What Messi needs is real help.
▎ 2018 Kazan, Russia, Messi lost his back alone.
At the 2018 World Cup, Messi, 31, the most mature age, was considered his last chance. But they had a nightmare group stage. Argentina was drawn 1-1 by Iceland in the first round and lost 3-0 to Croatia in the second round. Modric said at the time: “Messi is an incredible player, but he can’t do everything on his own.”
Football has entered the industrial age, every perfect team is a sophisticated machine, there is no “one-man World Cup” in the Maradona era.
Argentina lost 3-4 to France in the 1/8 final in 2018, which was far more powerless than the score, and the impact of Mbappe made people sigh that Messi’s era is over. Messi once again came up with the idea of quitting the national team, but Mascherano, who really retired, stopped him.
This is God’s sharpening of Messi. He needs to wait until the last World Cup to get the right coach and a group of suitable teammates. This is also Lionel Messi’s blessing, after all, he is waiting to come.
In the summer of 2021, Messi led Argentina back to the Maracana Stadium in Rio where they lost the World Cup final, beating Brazil 1-0 to win the Copa America. This is Messi’s first big competition champion, he knelt to cover his face to cry the moment, how many people also cried. Seven years later, almost all his teammates changed on the same field, but DiMaria, who missed the final for 14 years due to injury, helped him score a fatal blow in the 21-year final.
Messi knelt down and cried after the final whistle in the ▎ 2021 Copa America final.
The Copa America certainly can’t make up for the regret of the World Cup, but it unlocks the knot between Lionel Messi and Argentina. More than 30 games, including the Copa America and the World preliminaries, remained unbeaten, allowing Argentina to complete its transformation.
Argentina has become tougher, more rogue, and more “bad”. All this was shown in Messi’s fifth World Cup. More importantly, Argentina is more fortunate. This is Lionel Messi’s good fortune.
Before the start of the game, more than one opponent said: if he can not win the championship, I hope Messi will win the championship. Note that they are talking about “Messi winning the championship”, not Argentina winning the championship.
I’m not surprised. Even for Argentina themselves, these players want Lionel Messi to win, and they give everything to win the title, even if they don’t deserve it, Messi deserves it. At this time, Messi’s appeal in the national team dressing room may have surpassed that of Maradona in the world.
I didn’t expect it, but this is also the greatness of Messi-at the age of 35, Messi is still the most threatening man in the World Cup, and he carried Argentina all the way to the finals. Argentina scored 15 goals, Messi scored 7 goals and 3 assists, directly involved in 10 of them. This is the best World Cup for Lionel Messi, easily exceeding 2014, the peak that was thought to be difficult to surpass.
Of course, it also surpassed Maradona in 1986.
▎ Argentina two generations of ball king.
Indeed, as Modridge said, “one person can’t do everything alone.” his teammates gave Messi a great support on the defensive end, and DiMaria, like the Olympic final and the Copa America final, gave Messi the most direct help for the third time. However, in terms of the full performance of this competition, Messi is still the closest person in the world to one person to accomplish everything.
All the record data can prove Messi’s greatness, and the word “King of the Ball” is finally well deserved. But I don’t intend to interpret him as more than anyone else in history in terms of numbers. I just need to think about it a little bit, and I think it’s incredible:
In the era of industrialization, formulation and flow of football, there is still a person who can perform classical heroism with highly creative skills and carry a mediocre team to the throne. This plot is actually more Maradona than Maradona.
Forget it. And you don’t have to compare old Malay to Messi anymore. The only two ball king, let’s shine on each other!
Huang Jiaxin / Phoenix New Media Sports