by Luca Caioli
It certainly is. Fifteen minutes from the end, the score at the Shanghai Olympic stadium still stands at 0-0. Argentina, at least in the first half, play better than in the debut match, they create chances, but Federici, the Australian goalkeeper, is difficult to beat. Then, in a few seconds, after various touches between Riquelme and Messi, Román plays the ball out to the left to Di María, who crosses into the centre and Pocho Lavezzi converts it. It’s the victory goal.
On the other side of the world, two days after 12 August, a Messi-less Barcelona also win: 4-0 against Wisła Cracovia in the first leg of the preliminary round of the Champions League. The Blaugrana fears vanish. But let’s go back to China. With their pass to the quarter-finals in the bag, the Albiceleste relocate to the Olympic Village in Beijing. Nothing fancy for the spoiled footballers, but lots of encounters. ‘We were eating,’ recalls Oscar Ustari, ‘and we saw him arrive, queue for his food and sit down at the table. “Hi, I’m Kobe” (Bryant), he said to us. He spoke to us in Spanish, looked for Messi, and chatted to him for a bit. And we took the opportunity of taking a few photos. When it came to saying goodbye, he made the gesture of taking off his hat, looked directly at Leo, and said to him: “Messi, you’re the best.” We were in awe. Nadal (Rafa) also came over. When you’re with Leo, you can’t just cruise along, they stop you everywhere you go.’
But there are not only encounters with celebrities from all over the world. In Beijing they also have to face Serbia.
Checho rests Leo, keeps the already-cautioned Riquelme and Agüero on the bench, and lets the subs play. Seven changes, an overhaul which nonetheless leads to victory. 2-0 (a Lavezzi penalty and a Buonanotte free kick); nine consecutive Olympic victories (beating the record held by Uruguay for 80 years); first place in the group. The only ones who lost out were the 60,000 spectators who rushed to the Beijing Workers’ Stadium to see Messi in action. During the first half they chant his name and when, at the end of the match, they see that the Flea is not coming on, they begin to whistle at the Argentine team. In the end, the coach has to justify himself. ‘The people of China have to understand that we came here with an objective, that of winning the gold medal. It wasn’t only Messi who didn’t play today. Riquelme, Agüero and Garay didn’t play either. I was thinking of the best for Argentina. If they were annoyed, it’s bad luck. I hope they forgive me.’
The next fixture, also at the Beijing Workers’ Stadium, is against Holland on 16 August. Maradona is also in the stands, to cheer for the national team, and for Kun, who is the boyfriend of his daughter Giannina. There is no room for mistakes. Leo knows it and puts on a show. Here is how Clarín describes it: ‘How many wishes will be granted by this genie, who appears during the national team matches? If there were three in the original story, perhaps Batista’s team will be left short of what they need from this magical figure who arrived from Barcelona and who did very well again today, with a fantastic goal and an incredible pass – to resolve a story that had become difficult and in which Holland was very close to stealing the dream of reclaiming the Olympic gold.’ But what did the Flea do this time? He settled an extremely complicated match. Dodging around one defender, dummying the goalie to leave him in the dust, and blasting it into the net before any desperate Dutchmen had the chance to intervene. 1-0. Then, in the fourteenth minute of extra time, he invents perfect geometry so that Di María can predict the course of a strong shot, a low cross, which secures the 2-1. And Argentina are to face Brazil in the semi-finals.
The Clásico par excellence, the anticipated final, the perfect occasion to avenge the most recent historic encounters (the defeats in the finals of the 2004 Copa América in Peru, in the 2005 Copa Confederaciones and again in the 2007 Copa América in Venezuela). The Olympic champions Argentina, against Brazil, who have never won the gold; it is the match that Leo dreamt of, although one stage earlier in the competition. And as if that weren’t enough, there is the duel between Leo and Ronaldinho: two friends, two ex-team-mates, the talented youngster against the former Ballon d’Or winner, the present against the past, the current star against the champion who is looking to be reborn from the ashes. The list could go on and on. The debate over who is greater is wide open. Everyone has their own opinion. Even Kun gets involved: ‘Lionel, nowadays, is better than Ronaldinho. He’s the best player in the world.’
Messi avoids the topic, but he does not shy away from the avalanche of questions: ‘I’m not one to make predictions, but Ronnie: remember the gold belongs to Argentina! My dream is the dream of the whole Argentine team. And more so now, for Ustari, for my friend [Oscar has been injured in the match against Holland and cannot keep goal for the Albiceleste]. It will be hard,’ he says, ‘it is always difficult against Brazil. We are both extremely worn out from the extra time in our quarter-finals matches. Brazil has an incredible team, but our team is immense. We are playing for the same thing, to see who gets the gold, and they won the last final we played. I’m still cross about the final of the Copa América. Now it’s our turn …’ And indeed it is Argentina’s turn, but in a way no one had imagined. They quash, humiliate and make fun of Brazil. Agüero, with two goals and a hand in the third (he is fouled and Riquelme converts the penalty), and his celebrations – where he mimes putting a dummy in his mouth (Giannina is expecting a baby) – are all evidence of the weakness of Dunga’s team and Ronaldinho’s decline. ‘Nowadays,’ writes El País, ‘the Brazilian is a false player, more given to pulling faces, cheerful chatter and other similar gestures, which are only an attempt to win front pages and the applause of a Chinese crowd who are novices when it comes to football. As much as he disguises his decline with lots of theatricality, the football he has left in him does not guarantee him a performance, except for when the ball is dead as he is: he still manages to take free kicks.’ A cruel portrait of someone who was once the world number one. But even more cruel is the photo that appears in the media across the world the following day: Ronnie in his yellow number 10 shirt and captain’s armband, finding solace, head bowed, in the arms of his ‘little brother’ Messi. Lionel is standing on tiptoes in order to console his idol. There is a lot of affection in that picture, but there is also a lot of melancholy. Without making a big impression, Leo has won that highly anticipated duel. He is happy. Ronnie only wants to hide, to disappear from the face of the earth. ‘I’m sad, very sad,’ he will say later. For him, this was the opportunity to be seen again in the world. He has failed. Leo, on the other hand, is making his way towards gold.
At twelve o’clock on Saturday 23 August (one in the morning in Argentina) at the National Stadium, nicknamed the Bird’s Nest, the final of the Olympic Games football tournament begins. Opponent: Nigeria – just like in Atlanta ’96 and in the 2005 Under 20 World Cup in Holland. In the American Olympics, Nwankwo Kanu’s Nigeria took home the gold after a 3-2 final, considered by FIFA to be one of the ten most memorable matches in a century of Olympic football. Argentine revenge comes in 2005, in Holland. And the protagonist, the one who defeats the Green Eagles, is Lionel: two penalties. Fifteen players from that final (including Messi and Kun) find themselves at the ground in Beijing. ‘We’re going to win, I have no doubt about it. 2-0 would be perfect,’ prophesies Diego Maradona. It is not that easy.
The heat is so oppressive that after 30 minutes of the first half, Hungarian referee Victor Kassai calls a basketball-style timeout so the teams can cool down. A break that is repeated in the second half. The pitch is hard, dry and the Green Eagles leave no spaces uncovered. Messi and Agüero are alone up front. Their tiny runs with touches and dodges make no impression on the giant Nigerians. Riquelme is not having a good day. Midfielders Gago and ‘Chief’ Mascherano are working hard. The match is bad, wretched, boring, tiring. Until the 57th minute: there is a scuffle between an Argentine and an African, the ball rebounds towards the centre of the pitch, Messi recovers it, turns, and passes it perfectly, out deep, to Ángel Di María. The ex-Rosario Central currently at Real Madrid, the sensation of the Games,
gallops away freely on the left. And on the edge of the area, in front of Vanzekin who desperately comes off his line, he is inspired to lift the ball softly with his left foot and send it lightly through the heavy Beijing air. The Nigerian goalkeeper can do nothing but get up and, motionless in the penalty area, watch from afar as the ball bounces into the net – a work of art that deserves the gold. Argentina return to the top after four years on the highest step of the podium at Athens. Messi, with his arms around Kun, celebrates the fulfilment of the dream. He has triumphed over all the legal objections, over all those who didn’t want to let him experience this fairytale. And he says it out loud: ‘After everything that was said and discussed, it was worth coming.’
Chapter 35
Happiness
27 May 2009
Between Lexington Avenue and Fifth Avenue, Pakistani cab driver Happy Cabby offers customers his life philosophy: ‘To make others happy, you must be happy yourself. That is where happiness lies,’ he says, turning in his seat to face the passengers and tapping his head with his index finger. ‘Yes, it all depends on you to make other people and the world happy.’ Perhaps Leo has also felt this good news, conveyed over the noise of Midtown; one thing for sure is that the happiest year of his life began precisely here, in New York, on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street, in the Saint Regis hotel suite, when Pep Guardiola convinced Laporta and Begiristain to let Messi stay in Beijing. Permission to participate in the Olympic Games has been without a doubt the biggest motivation for the Argentine and has created a special relationship between the Flea and the Blaugrana coach.
‘Everything began over there in Beijing, with the gold medal. He has been happier than ever before,’ says his father, Jorge. ‘Yes, that’s what Pep wanted, for him to get his dream.’ ‘I don’t know … to me he seems very happy – I think we succeeded,’ admits Guardiola. Indeed, the young manager was conscious of the fact that the key to the Flea being able to make the Barcelona camp happy was first to make him happy. And he has managed it. Txiki Begiristain, sporting director of Barça, confirms it: ‘If, when he sees you, he jokes with you, then he’s happy, if he doesn’t seem to see you and looks the other way, something’s wrong. Leo has spent the whole year joking with me and with whomever he comes across.’ And his teammates say the same. ‘He can only play his best football when he’s happy and comfortable,’ says Xavi. ‘He has been happy,’ adds Puyol, the captain, ‘but I have also seen him angry. You have no idea what he’s like when he doesn’t win!’ But this has not happened during the 2008–09 season, since Barcelona have won everything: La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League, the first Spanish team to win the triple. In addition, they have won the Spanish Super Cup and the European Super Cup. Leo has scored more goals than ever before in his professional career. Twenty-three in La Liga, the fourth-highest scorer after Diego Forlán, Samuel Eto’o and David Villa. And let’s not forget the 5,000th goal in the Catalan club’s Liga history, which Leo scores on 1 February 2009 in Santander against Racing. His second of the match, which secures a victory for Barça. Next up: six more in the Copa del Rey, the tournament’s top goal scorer, and he only played 452 minutes (an average of a goal every 75 minutes), and two in the Spanish Super Cup. And nine goals in the Champions League, highest goal scorer in the European tournament. In contrast to the previous two years, he did not sustain even a minor injury in all his 51 matches. In addition to all that he garnered individual recognition. The Spanish coaches voted him the best Liga foreigner, over Forlán, Dani Alves and Kanouté, and according to the club coaches who reached the previous season’s Champions League final sixteen, he was the best footballer and best forward of the continental tournament, beating Cristiano Ronaldo to the punch. It’s true that the team’s (spectacular) performance has helped him to win these trophies, but ever since he put on the number 10 shirt, Messi has taken a step forward, he has taken up the mantle in the dressing room and on the pitch, he has given it his all, and done it all in an unassuming manner. ‘Ever since I met him, at fourteen,’ declares Blaugrana defender Gerard Piqué, ‘he has always been the same. He has never thought of himself as the best, but he has always known that we all consider him the best.’
At the Grimaldi Forum in Monte Carlo – dressed elegantly in a dark suit, matching tie and white shirt – after having received the honour of best 2008–09 Champions League player, Leo comments: ‘It has been an incredible year. I have thoroughly enjoyed it.’ And to those who ask him what has been the most magical moment, he responds: ‘There were so many wonderful moments that it would be impossible to pick one.’
Seeing as the champion does not know how to choose between so many happy occasions, we will give it a try.
27 May 2009, Olympic Stadium, Rome. Champions League final: Barcelona-Manchester United
Although Messi has one European Cup to his name, it has never felt like his. Because he was not there on the pitch on the evening of 17 May 2006 at the Saint-Denis stadium in Paris. The Flea was not granted permission to play by the medics, despite having repeated over and over that he was fine, that his thigh injury did not hurt any more. He watched the final, against Thierry Henry’s Arsenal, from the stands. And during the moments of joy, the hugs and the celebrations, he shut himself into the dressing room in a huff. His friends Deco and Ronaldinho were the ones who got him out of there and tried to make him see that the victory belonged to him as well. Without much success, because to him you have to play in order to feel like a champion.
This time it is different. Leo knows it and feels it. He has been a decisive contributing factor in bringing Barcelona to Rome. With eight goals which make him the tournament’s top goal scorer, ahead of Henry who has five and Berbatov, Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo who have four apiece. Messi scores five goals in the group phase: two against Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine, to reclaim a match which had been an uphill struggle for the Blaugrana; another two against FC Basel: one in Switzerland, which ended up being a Barcelona attack-fest (0-5), and the other at the Nou Camp. The final one is against Sporting Lisbon. The Portuguese team suffered at the hands of Barça’s goal-scoring ability when they were dealt a 2-5 blow on their home turf. And in the knockout rounds Lionel adds another three, all in front of the home crowd at the Nou Camp: one against Olympique Lyonnais in the quarter-final and two against Bayern Munich, among which he displays without a doubt his best football of the whole season. The Flea does not score in the semi-final against Chelsea. The Blaugrana hero is Andrés Iniesta with his heavenly shot in the 93rd minute, but it was Leo Messi who supplied the ball to the Blaugrana number 8 in the ‘D’. At long last … after working day and night, the Barça number 10 has earned the right to be a team leader. The final pits the Liga champions and the 2008–09 Premier League champions against each other – two teams full of great players. Here are the teamsheets. Barcelona: Valdés, Puyol, Touré, Piqué, Sylvinho, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Henry, Eto’o. Manchester United: Van Der Sar, O’Shea, Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra, Park, Anderson, Carrick, Rooney, Giggs, Cristiano Ronaldo.
Sir Alex Ferguson faces the final with his infinite experience, and Pep Guardiola, as the new sensation of the season. It is a match European football fans could only dream of, the best fixture possible, between two teams that put on the best show out of anyone on the continent. And, as Leo declares, it is ‘the most important game of my career’. He says it just before catching his flight to Rome. It is his first time in the Eternal City, but he doesn’t like sightseeing – he is only going to the Italian capital to win. Although he says that ‘they are the title holders, so if there is a favourite in a match like this – which there isn’t always – then they are the favourites on this occasion’.
The media is promoting the match as the great duel between Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi. They show each player’s Champions League statistics and maintain that they are playing for the Ballon d’Or in Rome. It is a chance for the Flea to overtake a rival who beat him by 165 points in France Football’s
Ballon d’Or vote on 2 December 2008, and who confirmed his place at the top by winning FIFA World Player of the Year on 12 January 2009. But Lionel doesn’t see it that way. ‘It would be reductive and disrespectful to two great teams, who are currently playing the best football. Two teams who have many other players who can be decisive.’ In other words, there is no personal contest with Cristiano to see who is better. ‘I am sure he thinks the same as I do: the important thing is the prize at stake for the team. One thing for sure is that whoever wins in Rome will be heralded as the best team in Europe.’