Messi

by Guillem Balague

  Argentina dominated possession during the first half and also for part of the second without really creating any great danger.

  Until Ayala put his side ahead with a header from a corner.

  The host nation had to push up and by pressuring high up the pitch hoped to regain possession and hurt Argentina. As a result there was a great deal of space behind their four defenders who were not especially fast.

  And then, suddenly, over a nine-minute period, a World Cup was lost.

  The goalkeeper Roberto Abbondanzieri got injured. Pekerman was forced to make a change. On came Leo Franco.

  Cambiasso replaced an angry Riquelme.

  Pekerman apologised to Juan Román. He was looking to refresh the midfield.

  There was one change left. A quick player could do a lot of damage. That’s what they’re all saying now. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

  Pekerman thought that at that moment what was needed was a tall striker, one who could complement Tévez and hold the ball up, a very useful recourse when a team is under the sort of pressure that Germany were applying. And his presence would also work as a weapon to defend, to avoid the greatest German danger: set pieces.

  There were 11 minutes remaining.

  Julio Cruz, a physically imposing forward, came on for Hernán Crespo.

  Messi stayed on the bench. Recognising that he wasn’t going to get on, he removed his boots. He was criticised for that.

  It is said, and written, that it will never really be understood why Pekerman chose not to bring him on. There’s talk about group dynamic and hierarchies. That it was a divided squad. That Julio Cruz carried more weight in the squad at the time, and that he was part of the group who were in charge in the dressing room. Even that it is a secret the coach will take to his grave.

  It seems that, in truth, people don’t want to listen to Pekerman. As always happens, defeat removed his right to an audience.

  Such decisions are not taken for one reason only, and neither are they made because of political considerations. Would it have been talked about if Klose hadn’t scored a minute after Crespo had been substituted, to make it 1–1, or if, after extra time, Ayala and Cambiasso hadn’t missed their penalties in the shoot-out? Would Messi removing his boots have been talked about? Do you see how defeat causes confusion, how thin the line is separating victory from failure?

  ‘They all criticise us for the substitution – we were winning 1–0 and we didn’t put Leo on,’ says Hugo Tocalli, Pekerman’s assistant. ‘If the match were to be repeated, we would do exactly the same. Let’s not forget that in the previous game we were drawing 1–1 and Messi and Aimar came on. That’s to say we were neither capricious nor anti-Messi.’

  With hindsight, the decision can be seen as an injustice, overlooking the fact that here was a 19-year-old boy who had only played 122 minutes in the World Cup and had only recently returned from injury. Hindsight forgets that he was not then the same Messi that he is today.

  ‘These are decisions that coaches make, but there was a lot of debate in Argentina,’ Mascherano explains. ‘That is the typical debate generated by sportsmen as great as Messi. But after that World Cup the debate ended. Leo was unquestionably an automatic starter after that.’

  Gerardo Salorio was a member of Pekerman’s technical team at that World Cup and he has no doubts: ‘He didn’t play because the coach, in the tenth of a second that he has to decide, stuck with the conviction that he had from the first twenty minutes of the game: that the only way they were going to score against us was with a header. And that’s why he put Cruz on, mostly to defend. The injury to our goalkeeper killed us, otherwise Leo would have come on and possibly affected the game in the last fifteen minutes. The Germans were physically dead …but anyway … it wasn’t our destiny.’

  Back in the dressing room, Leo cried. He wasn’t the only one. Argentina seemed to have the look of champions, but … With these ‘buts’ are written the histories of all the world’s national teams.

  And the boots? ‘I’m strange, sometimes I prefer being alone … I do stupid things, but I don’t handle my pain depending on whether I play or not. Sometimes I’m fucked. I suffer as a footballer. I know that they were saying that I didn’t feel the pain of our elimination. It looks like I don’t feel anything, that I’m made of stone and that I don’t have the right to suffer in my own way’ [Leo, July, 2006].

  Afterwards, Messi would not watch any more games in the tournament.

  But he was grateful. He did not forget that Claudio Vivas, coach Pekerman and his assistant Hugo Tocalli had launched a plan some two years earlier for him to play in the sky-blue and white of his country. ‘I thought I was going to play more. I lost ground with my injury and got there just in time. I will always be thankful to Pekerman for taking me [Leo in 2009].’

  He had just made his debut in the World Cup and he took that home with him. That and the pain of a national defeat that, thirteen years after the last major title, the Copa América of 1993, still left an open wound.

  Argentina arrived at the Copa América the following year in Venezuela as favourites with Leo Messi as a fixture in the starting line-up. He played all 90 minutes of the opening match against the United States (4–1) alongside an in-form Crespo, who scored a brace. The Flea’s’ spark and quality were acknowledged by reporters. In the second match against Colombia he once again started, was fouled for a penalty which was converted to make it 1–1, and helped create the second (scored by Riquelme) in an emphatic albiceleste 4–2 victory. With passage to the next round secured, Leo was rested from the start and Paraguay were narrowly beaten; he played the last 25 minutes.

  Messi scored the second goal in the quarter-final against Peru which ended in a convincing 4–0 win. He scored against Mexico in the semi-finals (3–0) and it was not just any goal.

  He picked the ball up in the right-hand corner of the penalty area where the centre-back was waiting for him, and as soon as he entered the box he chipped the ball over the waiting goalkeeper in the six-yard box. He had no right to invent that finish; the conditions were not suited to that goal.

  ‘Only geniuses are capable of finishing as Messi did. They should have had to close the stadium after that,’ coach Coco Basile, who had replaced Pekerman, said that day.

  In the space of two years, Messi was an Under 20 World Cup winner, a World Cup debutant and Copa América finalist against a Brazil side that had arrived at the competition with many second-string players (Ronaldinho and Kaká stayed at home) and Robinho as their star player. The cariocas had reached the final thanks to individual brilliance and despite uninspired collective performances, and almost nobody backed them. After an almost 15-year drought, it seemed that the albiceleste could win a title.

  But Argentina were comprehensively beaten 3–0.

  Olé summed up the country’s feelings in four sentences: ‘We did not deserve an end like that. Everyone had fallen in love with our team but they broke our hearts against Brazil. After the shock, Basile must shuffle things around and start over. A cycle was ended in Venezuela.’

  The team, lacking in cohesion, lived off its leading figures but had died with them. But, as the Argentinian newspaper stated, it was damaged by expectations that bordered on excessive: ‘Riquelme was not Zidane; nor was Messi Maradonita’. Leo was forgiven because of his age and rank, but harsh criticism was aimed at Riquelme, who some included in the resultant criticism.

  Juan Román Riquelme, leader of the generation that won the Under 20 World Cup in 1997, had been entrusted with the task of being the saviour of the homeland. But he started to decline fatally in that Copa América. Riquelme was known as ‘Tristelme’ (a play on his name and triste, meaning sad). He fought, on and off the pitch, to maintain his status and quit his role as protector of the new star, Leo. If, in truth, he ever had been: the central midfielder is of the opinion that you have to pay your dues, you have to start very close to the bottom, no matter how much Julio Grondona hugs you, as he used to hug
Leo – Riquelme himself only ever received a handshake from the president of the federation. On speaking about Barcelona, Riquelme always mentioned the importance of Xavi and especially Iniesta, ‘the genius’. Note the lack of recognition for Leo. Riquelme was suffering with the rise of ‘the Flea’.

  Messi felt that the path to leadership was narrow and Riquelme was blocking his way. But he did not demand anything: and things were going to get much worse before he put all his efforts into creating a more harmonious national team.

  Riquelme was given his last chance at the Beijing Olympics the following year.

  In Argentina the period that started in 2008 with the defeat against Chile in the World Cup 2010 qualifying stage, and left the albiceleste seven points behind leaders Paraguay, is known as ‘the decline’. Something broke at that time and the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics with an Under 23 team was no compensation.

  Summer 2008 was extremely tense in the Messi household. Leo wanted to go to the Olympics but Barcelona tried, initially, to deny him that opportunity, because it clashed with the Champions League qualifying round that the club had to win, thanks to their disastrous third-place finish the previous season. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) granted Barça legal authority to decide Leo’s future with regard to the Games and Joan Laporta wanted Messi, who had joined the national team to prepare for the tournament, to return to the club tour in the United States and not miss the vital match against Wisła Kraków: one slip and Barcelona would be out of the main European competition.

  ‘People were saying that he was not going to come with us,’ remembers Oscar Ustari, reserve goalkeeper in that Under 23 team. ‘He said to me: “don’t worry, I’m going to do everything possible to come.”’

  Guardiola, having just arrived as coach at Barcelona, had, with the departure of Ronaldinho and Deco, decided to make Leo Messi the focal point of the team, but during a phone call with him from his New York hotel he realised just how complicated a month ‘the Flea’ had had. Up to that point, Leo had always made himself available to the club, but in that conversation Messi, who was relying on the fact that Pep had been a player himself, and would understand him, asked him not to insist on his return. ‘Play in the Olympics and win the gold medal,’ Pep told him. In the ensuing press conference, Guardiola admitted to having noticed ‘a lot of emotional tension. I saw that he was very uncomfortable with the situation – it was not a good idea to bring him back, his head was in Beijing.’

  Argentina, with Mascherano, Leo, Kun Agüero, and Riquelme as one of the over 23-year-olds allowed to play, were defending their gold medal won at Athens, and they did so successfully. And with Messi as the first name on the team sheet. They won every single game (1–0 in the final against Nigeria) without conceding a goal. Messi scored twice and was involved in five of the others.

  That Olympic tournament is remembered for three things.

  For something that was witnessed: a very public hug between Ronaldinho, with socks rolled down and a vacant gaze, and Leo, which lasted more than 30 seconds after the historic 3–0 albiceleste victory over Brazil in the semi-finals. It was the symbolic representation of the passing over of the baton at Barcelona.

  Also for something that was not widely witnessed, but remained etched in the memory of those who did see it. Ustari explains: ‘It was amazing to see Kobe Bryant going to say hello to my friend, not to the famous Lionel Messi, but to my friend Leo! “Kobe Bryant is going up to that lucky sod!” I was saying. This is what happened: we went into the dining hall, I was filming and saying: “well, we have one or two of the best players in the world”, and just then Román [Riquelme] and Leo came out, and I filmed them. And I continued, “we can also see the world’s best in basketball”. Kobe was still a fair few feet away and I was pointing the camera at him. And I saw him walking towards us, and my hand and camera start shaking! Leo took everything calmly, well, in reality he didn’t know what to do. He seemed embarrassed about him [Bryant] coming over, he couldn’t believe it. And we took a photo with him, of course.’

  And, thirdly, for something that was not seen, but felt. ‘There was a momentous change from the Under 20 World Cup to the Olympics, with the World Cup in between,’ continues Ustari. ‘Everyone our age changed. Given Leo’s trustworthy and likeable nature, he was already becoming a leader.’ So, what was going to happen to Riquelme?

  The transition towards Leo’s Argentina began that year. ‘The Flea’ would return to Barcelona grateful to his new coach, and with the boost of new success with the national team.

  He was now on the springboard.

  The ‘decline’ of the national team would continue in 2008, and put Coco Basile’s position in danger. In a calculated initiative to pile pressure on the coach, Maradona singled Leo out as the culprit for the team’s poor performances. With the attitude of those who believe they are always right, he created a general mistrust of Messi in the minds of the average Argentine fans, who took Maradona’s word as gospel.

  Argentina had just drawn 1–1 with Peru and Maradona had something to say about that. ‘Sometimes, Messi plays for Messi. He has so much arrogance that he forgets about his team-mates,’ he said in a telephone conversation on Fox Sports. ‘It is FC Messi. If he were to play more with Agüero or Riquelme, opposition defenders would have more to worry about. Matches are not won by attacking every time you have the ball, but by knowing how to attack. And you have to work on that.’

  However, other players, argued Diego, deserved the fans’ affection. ‘I hope he is better than me, but just now Mascherano is more important to Argentina than Riquelme and Lionel. And the team has to look after Tévez much more – all he is asking for is security. Not the captaincy or anything extraordinary. That insecurity leads him to do more than he actually can manage and he is all over the place.’

  ‘Leo lacks character,’ he had said previously, suggesting that Messi had not put up enough of a fight against Barcelona in their pre-Olympics conflict with the Argentine Football Association. In reality, Messi had fought, but without announcing it openly to the media. What was Maradona up to? Surely he was only too aware of the pressure associated with wearing the sky-blue and white shirt and conscious that Messi was only 21 at the time?

  These were Maradona’s thoughts at the start of the close season: Messi would be subject to criticism, even before maturing in the national team. A negative image of Messi was now being created and as far as most critics were concerned it would only become positive if he won matches on his own. And a World Cup, if possible. Just as Maradona had done. An enormous task.

  Leo and his family were hurt by those words. After another long journey from Buenos Aires, where he had played for the national side, Leo answered in his own way on his arrival at Barcelona airport: ‘I’m used to Diego speaking out. We all know what he is like.’

  There was a theory doing the rounds at the Argentine Football Association: some day, so as to silence Maradona’s continual criticism, the best thing to do would be to make him coach of the albiceleste. If he was successful, fantastic. If he wasn’t, he would have nothing more to say. The mistakes and bad results in the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign caused Basile to resign from the national team after a defeat against Chile, and in autumn 2008 el Pelusa, Maradona, was appointed coach of Argentina.

  Little more than a year after the Maradona-esque goals (the one against Getafe, of course, but also that handball against Espanyol), Maradona himself, having acquired no coaching badges and with a grand total of three victories in his two stints as manager with Mandiyú and Racing Club in the Nineties, was about to find himself on the same pitch as his heir apparent.

  One of the new coach’s first tasks was to try to fit Messi’s talent into the squad, something he had never previously considered when criticising him from the sidelines. Some aspects of his game were certainly starting to cause concern: his disconnection with the midfield, his lack of alternatives for releasing the ball, the few passes that he received and his insi
stence on making an individual run when there was a lack of support. The team had to improve, but so did Messi’s decisions and performances.

  Maradona, who needed some good results and as quickly as possible in order to get Argentina’s qualifying campaign back on track, had one thing in his favour: Leo, now free of those who, consciously or otherwise, had prevented him from blossoming at Barcelona, was playing his best football under the team’s new coach, Pep Guardiola. Maradona’s job was to create the right sort of atmosphere with Argentina so that Messi could make a similar impact with the national team.

  They had two years together, Diego and Leo, to get it right, with all eyes on the World Cup in South Africa in 2010.

  So began Leo’s trial before the Argentine public. Although Carlitos Tévez was the ‘village player’, more popular than Leo at home in Argentina, Messi had officially become the saviour of the homeland.

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  Pelé and Maradona were the best footballers in history. When you see them play, is there anything that makes you say ‘Wow! he does this or that so well’?

  –

  The thing is they were good at everything. I haven’t seen many videos of Pelé, Di Stéfano or Cruyff. On the other hand I’ve seen everything Maradona did, I even managed to see him play live when I was a kid.

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  Seriously? – Yes, as a kid. I don’t remember any of it, but I have been told I saw him on his Newell’s debut against Emelec. – Of course, it was in 1993, you were six.

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  Yes.

  (A video of Maradona looking at the camera appears and he says: ‘Leo, you know that I love you a lot, let the others do the talking, you’re going to be the best player in history. We will decide that when you hang up your boots. Today carry on doing what you’re doing and I hope you’re happy with your family. I love you a lot, Leo’)