Every World Cup, every major sporting event, sometimes even every game, needs a narrative. A story that will unite around him, that will create a story that will hopefully accompany him to the great climax that will come at the end. In the 2022 World Cup, alongside all the problems and criticisms, there is one narrative that accompanies and will accompany it throughout, or at least until the results bring it to an end. The last World Cup of Leo Messi andCristiano Ronaldo.
On the face of it, the World Cup should decide which of these two wonderful athletes is greater. Each of them defined world football in their own way in the last generation, each of them won the continental title with their team, and each of them lacks only one title, the most prestigious title of all. But in doing so, even within this narrative, one can find clear differences between the two.
Cristiano Ronaldo arrives at this tournament at the lowest point of his professional career, after his comeback to Manchester United reached the lowest point imaginable, culminating in a sensational interview in which he went head-to-head against his manager and the club. For the Portuguese, the World Cup is the opportunity to “prove to the world” that he is still here. An opportunity to answer visitors. “The more they torture him, the more he will multiply and the more he will break out”, as the saying goes.
But we are here to talk about Leo Messi, just before he opens his way in his last World Cup, and why, for me, the fight between them has already been decided, without a single minute of football being played in the World Cup. While many want to see Ronaldo regain his lost glory, the dominant agenda on the other hand is “Leo Messi deserves to win the World Cup. Soccer owes him.”
This attitude can of course upset many people, certainly those who don’t like the flea or the Argentina team, and yes, it’s perfectly fine not to like a wonderful footballer like him. Does his illustrious career make him a more deserving candidate to win the tournament? Does someone who has suffered from resting his leg for so many years suddenly need to encourage him? And in general, since when in football does it come? Lord Messi will be honored, he will finally score a goal in the knockout stage of the World Cup, and lead his team to victory.
Still, this attitude, which has become more and more common as the event approaches, and is also common among quite a few football people, does symbolize something significant in the gap between the two players. The feeling of “Messi deserves to win for what he gave to football”, signifies, at least for me, that the gap between these two rare footballers, has long since not depended on who scored more goals or who won more titles. Statistically, both are truly immortal, both have done things that I can bet neither footballer will repeat in the foreseeable future. Yes, neither do you, Mr. Erling Holland.
In the end, it’s not the trophies, the number of goals, how many you scored in the knockout stages or how many team and individual titles you won. When it comes to two such giants, it goes to the eye test, and more thinking, the emotional test and how much effect you had on both the audience and those who play this game. In this whole, my feeling even before the start of this tournament and in the atmosphere around it, is that Messi’s knockout is so big, that almost no result and no scenario in this World Cup will change it.
And in general, there are other players that this tournament will be more significant for their career and how we will remember it. Harry Kane is well on his way to becoming England’s all-time leading goalscorer, but as he approaches 30, he doesn’t have a single medical degree in his career. A World Cup with England would change his legacy completely. Or take Neymar as an example. The golden boy of Brazilian football has already entered the last line of his career. After two traumas in 2014 and 2018, and after never being able to seize the royal throne of world football. Winning the title that Brazil is waiting for will paint his career in completely different colors.
Let’s go back to Messi. Over the years, it seemed that the golden and prestigious trophy rested like a 100-ton weight on the shoulders of the flea. The incessant comparisons to Maradona who led Argentina to its last victory, the fact that the Albiceleste see themselves in every tournament as candidates for winning and each time they failed, served as ammunition for anyone who tried during his career to downplay what the flea does on the field. Probably each of us has heard the sentence during his life, “Without Xavi and Inicietta he wouldn’t have won anything”.
But the years pass, what Messi has done in world football cannot be denied. This is surely the most important tournament in his life, simply because it is the last, but I feel that he will come to it more liberated than ever. After winning the Copa America, Messi dropped one small weight. And in general, how can you judge such a long and glorious career based on a knockout tournament, where so many variables can affect what is happening? Leo Messi also knows this, and he is coming to Qatar 2022 from a much more complete and secure place. Argentina, not one of the leading teams to win this tournament, can only benefit from this.
