Messi

by Luca Caioli

  ‘Anyone else in his situation could retire on the Ballon d’Or,’ comments Pep Guardiola after the match. ‘But Leo has an unmatched competitiveness in his soul, such ambition, that he gets angry and even in difficulty he wants another goal and he says: “I’m going for it.” He goes right for it, straight ahead.’

  The medical report states that Messi is suffering from a grade one sprain of his right ankle. He cannot play in the derby against Espanyol, and his participation in the semi-final of the Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi is threatened. On Saturday 12 December at the Nou Camp Leo is not playing, but he takes to the pitch to parade the Ballon d’Or in front of the 84,554 spectators. Celia, his mother, is there to present it to him.

  An emotional moment and huge applause, before the long trip to Abu Dhabi, where Barça will face Mexican club Atlante in the semi-final on Wednesday 16 December, Atlante having just beaten Auckland City 3-0.

  The photos and the TV footage from the United Arab Emirates show Messi on the beach, in blue swimming trunks and with a bandaged ankle, training in order to recover in good time. Leo and the whole of Barça are immersed in the competition, concentrating extremely hard on training in the lead-up to the game against Atlante, who are known as the Iron Colts. All predictions favour the Catalans far above the CONCACAF champions, but the Barça fans have not forgotten the two finals they lost in 1992 and 2006. They need to psych themselves up from the start. That’s the plan, but things don’t go their way. Barcelona are losing 1-0 after five minutes at the Zayed Sports City stadium. In the 35th minute Sergio Busquets equalises. Nonetheless Barça cannot­ handle Atlante. The Mexicans are defending well and they take advantage of the few opportunities they have, while the Blaugrana make fools of themselves and seem to lose the thread of the game. There is nothing to do but call on Messi. The Argentine, on the bench, was not planning to play unless absolutely necessary. But Barça have stalled, and Guardiola makes use of him in the 53rd minute. ‘I knew that Messi was coming on judging by the screams from the crowd. I knew that his presence could upset the balance of the match,’ Atlante manager José Cruz will say later, ‘but I wasn’t expecting him to do it so quickly.’

  One minute, just one minute, is all it takes Leo to turn the match around and dictate the outcome. The Argentine manages to lose his marker while making a diagonal run, Ibrahimovi´c sees him, spins around and offers him a beautiful and precise shot out deep. The Flea does the rest: perfect control, perfect sidestep around the Atlante goalie and, of course, perfect shot. The ball sputters forward into the net. It is his first touch, and it is 1-2; the Mexican resistance is over; Barça has woken up; Pedro nets the third, becoming the only footballer in history to have scored in six different club competitions in one season; now the eleven Blaugrana players can dedicate themselves to delighting the crowd with kicks and touches. Pure virtuoso. The chances come one after the other and Messi allows himself the luxury of missing another head-to-head with Vilar, the Argentine goalie, whom he knows well from the Albiceleste. And, once again, Messi has been the genie. José Cruz explains it as follows: ‘Without Messi Barcelona is the best team in the world; when Leo plays they are from another galaxy.’ There is nothing more to be said.

  Only the final remains, on 19 December; only Estudiantes de La Plata, the Argentine team who have eliminated South Korean club Pohang Steelers 2-1 in the semi-final. They are the team of the bald ‘Brujita’ (‘little witch’), Juan Sebastián Verón, who was Leo’s mentor in the 2007 Copa América, the globe-trotter who has become the team’s central figure and dreams of repeating the achievements of his father Juan Ramón ‘La Bruja’ (‘the witch’) Verón. In 1968 the Estudiantes striker led the ‘Rat Stabbers’, as they are nicknamed, to victory in the Intercontinental Cup, beating Manchester United at Old Trafford.

  It is certainly a dream given the forces on the pitch, but it lasts 89 minutes – almost the whole match, almost a miracle. The Argentines find the goal and the advantage towards the end of the first half (37th minute), with a clean header from Boselli, who finds a gap between Puyol and Abidal to finish Díaz’s cross. Barça find themselves in the worst possible scenario: a goal down, no goals of their own, Messi with a yellow card to his name and, above all, a team that is lost and can find neither gaps in midfield, nor decisive passes. All the gaps are blocked by the Rat Stabbers’ trivote (a formation of three defensive midfielders). Messi is invisible and Henry is nowhere to be found; Ibrahimovi´c battles on with little effect.

  By contrast, Estudiantes know exactly what to do: kill the game, block the ball and any initiative from the Barça players and recoil into their shell, not conceding even the slightest chance to their opponents, using all the tools at their disposal (fouls, clearances, letting the ball go out, substitutions, little kicks) to waste time, to get to the 90th minute and win the cup they so desire for the second time. Barça do not give up, they show all their strength of character, all their determination, they try again and again until Xavi gets it in the box in the final minutes. Piqué passes to Pedro who heads the ball, which collides with the net. They have equalised. Extra time. And Barça have won, the Argentines know it. Their faces say it all – they cannot hold up any more, they cannot stand up to little Messi, who plays as though he were playing in a playground; he scores with his chest, with his heart, with the emblem on his shirt. He anticipates his friend Juan Sebastián Verón, and in the 110th minute he finishes Daniel Alves’ cross with that move which no one was expecting.

  Why did he shoot with his chest instead of with his head? ‘I was trying to play it safely. I saw that the goalie was unprepared,’ Leo will explain the following day in an interview with El País. ‘I thought it would be enough to put it in gently, just to the side of the area he was blocking. Luckily it turned out well.’

  Simple as always, and as always the Flea looks up to the heavens and dedicates his goal to his grandmother Celia and to God for everything he has been given. After that there are only celebrations in the Blaugrana camp and tears from Pep Guardiola, who has been overcome by emotion for once. Leo is the first to hug him and thank him, but he does not forget his opponents. He goes over to shake hands with all the Estudiantes players one by one, ‘because they played fantastically, because they’re Argentine, because they were very sad’. Third time lucky. After the 1992 and 2006 defeats, Barça win the trophy for the first time in the club’s 110-year history. And the team are crowned kings of the world. No team has ever won six titles in one year. ‘Right now I don’t think we have fully realised what we have achieved,’ confesses Messi to El Periódico. ‘It will be difficult for another team to match this and, as time goes on, we will value it more and more.’

  Barça have climbed to the top of the world, and Leo reaches the top once again on Monday 21 December in a snow-covered Zurich.

  A few minutes after 9.00pm, UEFA president Michel Platini steps up to the podium accompanied by FIFA president­ Joseph ‘Sepp’ Blatter. Before he opens the golden envelope, one last look at the candidates for the prize. They roll the clip showing the faces of Cristiano Ronaldo, Andrés Iniesta, Kaká, Messi and Xavi.

  Platini says he is very proud that all those nominated play in European teams. Then comes the most important moment, the announcement: ‘The FIFA World Player 2009 is Lionel Messi.’

  Third time lucky. Again. After coming second in 2007 and 2008, Leo is the number one. The Barça number 10 gets up from his seat, buttons his Ermenegildo Zegna jacket, adjusts his blue tie and goes up on stage. Michel Platini hands him the prize and invites him to speak.

  Good evening. First of all I would like to thank all the players who voted. It is a great honour for me to receive this prize, because it has been given by players from other clubs and other national teams, and that’s really wonderful. I would like to thank – and share this with – my teammates [here the camera pans to Iniesta in the audience], this is the best possible finish to what has been a magnificent year for Barcelona, for my teammates, and for me. Thank you very much.r />
  Leo’s voice is shaking and he is smiling more than ever. He has won, and he has done it by a landslide once again: 1,073 points, three times as many as Cristiano Ronaldo, who is second with 352, Xavi is third (196), Kaká fourth (190) and Iniesta fifth (134). The managers and captains of 147 countries have awarded him an overwhelming victory.

  ‘This is priceless, it’s priceless,’ declares Jorge Messi, who is accompanied by Celia, Matías, Rodrigo and María Sol. ‘To win a prize, or for the team to win a title, those are things that are possible to comprehend. But to win everything­ at once, that was inconceivable,’ says the Flea’s father. And, quite emotional, he explains: ‘It’s the perfect end to a perfect year – more happiness would be impossible.’

  ‘Planet Earth surrenders to Messi’, say the headlines the following day, but it still remains for Leo to conquer the heart of one particular country; his country, Argentina. Because ‘it annoys them that he still isn’t a “Gardel” when it comes to the national team’. Moreover, because although they have qualified, with difficulty, for the South Africa World Cup, the Flea has never shone with the Albiceleste. ‘Because in the Barcelona shirt he is transformed, and in the Argentine one he is not.’ Yes, it’s true, in Argentina they accuse him of a lack of affection towards his nation ‘as if his lesser performance were due to a lack of motivation rather than the popularisation of a player who, with the Albiceleste, has more chance of winning the lottery than receiving a decent pass. Maradona has imposed a Messianic model,’ writes David Gistau in El Mundo, ‘in which Messi, the child of another time, does not fit; furthermore, he left Argentina very quickly – as if immersing himself in a kind of popular idolatry.’ They do not realise that the problem does not lie with Messi, but rather with the team. They see him as a foreigner, they write ‘Messi is not Argentine’, because he has given all he can to Barça, he has given it his all in Europe and, what’s more, he has ruined Estudiantes’ dream, which was supported by practically the whole country. Yes, Messi has a problem with Argentines, or better, the Argentines have a problem with Messi. Leo knows it and it bothers him that they say that he does not care about the Albiceleste. And there is nothing that angers him more than when they say that he is not Argentine. ‘What do they know about my feelings?’ he exclaims. But this year the problem can be resolved. At the World Cup. All that is needed is for Leo to do what he does best.

  Chapter 37

  Floods of tears

  3 July 2010

  It’s the 89th minute. Germany are on the attack. Miroslav Klose’s efforts lead to the final goal, bringing the scoreline to 4-0. From the opponent’s half, Messi keeps running. He reaches the halfway line, pauses for a moment with his hands on his hips, then sags and leans his hands on his knees. He feels like crying. The Argentine number 10 has lost his spark – head down, at a loss, disbelieving. Klose runs past him, jubilant.

  At referee Ravshan Irmatov’s final whistle, Lionel heads down to the dressing room. Juan Sebastián ‘La Brujita’ Verón and Argentina’s fitness coach Fernando Signorini try to console him, Diego Armando Maradona gives him a hug and a kiss – but he is inconsolable. It’s the Pelusa who later emphasises what Leo’s tears mean when speaking at the press conference. ‘Anyone who claims he isn’t proud to play for his country is just plain stupid,’ he snaps.

  ‘It was very hard to see Messi in such a state in the dressing room,’ explains Signorini. ‘Some people might think that he has no right to be like that as he has so much going for him in his life, but that’s why I bring in boys like him. They’re earning millions of dollars but they’re in floods of tears in the dressing room – it shows just how much it means to them inside.’

  That’s how Messi’s World Cup ends, with tears of frustration, pain and a sense of powerlessness. He leaves South Africa feeling empty, without having scored a single goal. He has failed to live up to the hopes of the Argentine fans – the dream that he would rival Maradona’s achievements in the 1986 Mexico World Cup. And he has failed to cement his reputation within the Albiceleste. He is leaving ‘his’ World Cup without having shown his true self. Messi the Ballon d’Or winner. Messi, Barcelona’s brightest star. But now he is just another fallen star like Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaká or Franck Ribéry. It’s a sad conclusion to a story that began so differently …

  Forty-seven goals shine like 47 jewels in the crown of Lionel’s 2009–10 season. He has won the Golden Boot, the honour reserved for Europe’s highest goal scorer. No one has come close to matching his achievements. He has left the strikers in the Spanish, English, German and Italian leagues in the dust. Gonzalo Higuaín has 27, Didier Drogba 29, Arjen Robben 23, and Antonio Di Natale has scored 29.

  In La Liga, Messi has played better than anyone else and better than ever – he has beaten all his previous scores since he joined the first team six years ago. He is the top scorer, with nine double goals and four hat-tricks. And with 34 league goals he has equalled Ronaldo’s 1996–97 figure. He has also broken a record at Barça HQ: he is the youngest player in the Catalan club’s history to score more than 100 league goals, and he has outstripped strikers such as Rivaldo, Romario and Eto’o.

  They are 34 important goals which help win the league. Barça takes the title on the final match day of the season thanks to a definitive whitewash – 4-0 against Valladolid with two from Messi. They have reclaimed the title after a duel to the bitter end with Cristiano Ronaldo’s Real Madrid. The Blaugrana have racked up 99 points out of a possible 114, another La Liga record. They have fought a lively, magnificent championship, scoring 98 goals and conceding just 24. They have beaten Florentino Pérez’s Whites at both the Nou Camp and the Bernabéu. And Lionel has surpassed Cristiano Ronaldo, the 2008 Ballon d’Or, the most expensive player in footballing history and star of Florentino’s team. The kid from Rosario has made it to the top, winning four league titles in six seasons. But above all, he has grown in maturity and has demonstrated an inner sense of calm as a person and as a footballer.

  ‘He’s no longer trying to make the play of the century every time he gets the ball. He passes it more and he mixes it up,’ explains Tito Vilanova, Pep Guardiola’s right hand man. ‘He has grown as a team player. He does a lot more damage and it’s much more difficult to stop him now.’

  It has been a spectacular season for Lionel, with just two setbacks. The first is on 13 January 2010 against Sevilla at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán stadium. Barcelona are playing like a dream, at the top of their game, creating countless chances – but Palop blocks everything and they only manage to get one past him. Thanks to a first leg scoreline of 1-2 at the Nou Camp, Sevilla knock the Blaugrana out of the Copa del Rey. It’s the first time Barça have let a title get away in the whole of Guardiola’s reign. Messi is distraught. Words of comfort from his teammates and his Argentine friend Gaby Milito fall on deaf ears.

  ‘A different person would have said, “Never mind, I’m the world champion, I’ve still got La Liga!”’ explained Guardiola. ‘But not him. He was the most upset out of everyone.’

  The second setback occurs on 28 April 2010 at the Nou Camp. Following on from a fantastic defensive effort and a perfect game in Milan, José Mourinho’s Inter succeed in knocking Barça out of the Champions League. The European champions are out in the semi-final and they won’t be going to the much coveted final at the Bernabéu. The comeback that the fans have been dreaming about is not to be. They are left with a consolation goal from Piqué in the 84th minute which does nothing to dent the 3-1 scoreline from the San Siro match. It is not enough to earn them their ticket to Madrid.

  Barcelona’s efforts are crushed by Inter’s eleven men – and even by ten men after Motta’s sending off. The same Messi who had scored four goals against Wenger’s Arsenal has not managed a single goal against any team managed by Mourinho – Chelsea or Inter. His performance is not exactly noteworthy, but Guardiola still defends him. ‘There is no reason to criticise him. They had six defending so he always had two men on him, re
gardless of whether he was in the middle or on the wing.’ Defending the whole team, he says: ‘They have nothing to apologise for after the game they’ve played. I’m very proud of all of them.’ His message to the locals is clear: he is sorry he cannot lead them to Madrid and he promises to try again next year. But for now, he assures them that ‘we’ll pick ourselves up and carry on’.

  And they do. On 16 May, the whole town chants, ‘We are the champions, Barça are the champions.’ During the title celebrations, Lionel grabs the microphone and yells, ‘Come on Argentina, you sons of bitches!’ The blue and claret fans clap and cheer. They want him to play well for his country. And so does the whole of Argentina.

  ‘We’ve all dreamed of lifting the World Cup. Not because it makes you a more important player, but simply because there is nothing more beautiful in the world. I left the 2006 World Cup in tears after that defeat by Germany. I hope to leave South Africa crying too – but this time crying tears of joy,’ declares Lionel at Ezeiza airport in Buenos Aires where he has touched down for the national team’s training camp.

  He adds: ‘Playing with the national team is completely different from playing in Barcelona because of the lack of time to train and practise. That’s not to say that the international teams are worse – they’re the best in the world – but we don’t have much time to work, everything happens very quickly. Two days, and then a game. When we’re all together, in a group and with plenty of time, then it’s different. When we go to the tournament we’ll keep ourselves to ourselves and stay calm and reserved. We’re not the favourites, and that’s good because that means we can create big surprises.’