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Mark Twain once said that the two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.
But I will add a third: the day I met Lionel Messi.
(Photo by Koji Watanabe/Getty Images)
It was a sticky, humid and thundery day in Fort Lauderdale back in the summer of 2023 that was Messi’s arrival at Inter Miami. The night before the Leagues Cup final, which would ultimately be Leo’s first trophy with the club, and his record 44th career title. But I was inside one of the suites at Inter Miami’s former stadium, waiting for an exclusive interview with a player I had covered – and like every other mortal – marveled over throughout my life and career.
(Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images)
As a football journalist, the values of objectivity are a crucial basis for our work, and it is important to never get carried away when you meet someone you greatly admire. It also goes back to the well-known saying that you should “never meet your heroes”, some words of wisdom spoken from one legendary icon (John Lennon) to another (Mick Jagger). But I actually attribute this advice more to lines from Gustave Flaubert’s 1856 novel Madame Bovary, which reads: “Don’t touch your idols: a little gold always rubs off.”
But with Messi, the gold never does.
And for me, to be a true serviceman of the sport as a journalist, you can’t just report on the beautiful game, you have to feel it. You have to live inside the skin of what it means to be a supporter, because they are the heart, flesh and bones of a club or a national team. So to meet Messi is to represent what it would mean to any Argentine who would give their right arm to do the same. You owe it to them.
THE CONVERSATION BETWEEN Messi and I talked about him and his family’s happiness, now finally in Miami after leaving PSG, his new life in the US and expectations for the next few years. And that was in the summer of 2023, not long after winning the World Cup in Qatar and months before receiving his record eighth Ballon d’Or.
Messi, ever the introvert, was extremely attentive, quiet and thoughtful in his responses. This is a quality that you all need to know. He is not shy, but rather an internal thinker. But as a child it was much worse at school. Whenever he wanted to ask a teacher a question, he would need his best friend to do it for him. During his trial in Barcelona when he was 13, established stars such as Gerard Piqué and Cesc Fàbregas – from the famous ’87 generation – would remember that Messi would not speak or ask questions.
But he didn’t have to when they learned that anything he needed to say would be on the field.
Back to my meeting with Messi: I remember one point when I asked him how successful the USA and MLS can be when it comes to competing with the likes of Europe. His response? “Their success is up to them.”
And the reason I bring it up is because it is the type of mindset that fully encapsulates Messi, as he has always been someone who truly believes that the rewards of triumph and prosperity are dictated by only one motivating factor: himself.
The mural at Messi’s childhood home. (Photo by MARCELO MANERA / AFP via Getty Images)
Messi grew up in Rosario, about 270 miles northwest of Buenos Aires. It is the city where the Argentine flag was first raised during the War of Independence in 1812.
Messi lived in a humble neighborhood called La Bajadain a house built by his father and grandfather. He played in the streets until sunset, constantly kicking the ball to the same spot on the neighbor’s wall to get his angle just right. Playing for Newell’s Old Boys, his first trip away from Argentina was in Perú and the night before the big tournament he ate some chicken that didn’t agree with him. The next morning the head coach was worried and wanted to take him to the hospital. Messi argued, saying all he needed was Gatorade. He drank it, played in the tournament and single-handedly led the team to win the entire tournament.
Messi, center, with his boyhood club in Rosario. (Photo by Marcelo Manera/AFP via Getty Images)
DESPITE EVERYTHING But admiration, stardom and attention, and the fact that he is a World Cup winner, a four-time Champions League champion and has won more individual trophies than anyone else in the history of the sport, Messi remains the little boy who needed growth hormones to keep up with his peers. Throughout his life he was overlooked again and again, but never ran away from the eternal feeling that fate is something you determine. And that’s why he’s the greatest ever. His is a journey of determination and will, mixed with the fact that what he does on the field is almost impossible to believe.
From his solo “Ankara Messi” goal for Barcelona against Getafe in 2007 – mirroring Diego Maradona’s own work of art in the 1986 World Cup against England – to my favorite (his golazo at the 2018 World Cup against Nigeria), Messi has given us countless moments of magic.
But again, it begins with steely determination.
The 2022 World Cup in Qatar, for example, started with a shocking loss to Saudi Arabia. But Messi used this as a catapult to explode into greatness with Argentina, winning every game from that moment on, including the electrifying final against France. In the midst of adversity, Messi – just like his real persona – is actually very calm. Sure, you’ll often see emotion and strife on the field, but in terms of goals and knowing what you have to do to win – he’s completely at peace.
“We couldn’t be upset because we knew he was calm,” said his former teammate Ángel Di María, speaking of the 2022 World Cup opening loss to Saudi Arabia. “Why should I feel bad when it’s the biggest [player] in the story our captain is completely calm and sends a message to 45 million Argentines that this group will not let them down?”
(Photo by Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP via Getty Images)
And they didn’t.
And so as we fast forward to the present and look forward to Sunday’s World Cup final between Argentina and Spain at the New York New Jersey Stadium, I can’t help but feel extremely emotional about the fact that this is Leo’s curtain call at the World Cup. There is a sadness that lives in me because I just know that after tomorrow, regardless of the score, Lionel Messi will never grace us on the biggest stage ever again.
Of course anything can happen and Messi could turn around and remain committed that as a 43-year-old superstar he will brag us playing in 2030. Nothing is impossible and if anyone can do it, it’s him.
But this is more wishful thinking than anything else. The harsh reality is that Sunday’s final will be the last time Messi urges his team on with a speech reminiscent of Henry V’s Shakespeare: “Once more to the bride, dear friends, once more…”
Let me change that feeling, as it is probably not the best idea to give the greatest living Argentine a quote from the most famous English playwright. Allow me to focus instead on the timeless words of Buenos Aires-born Jorge Luis Borges, one of Spanish literature’s most influential writers and poets.
“For me, beauty is a physical sensation, something we feel with our whole body. It’s not a result of judgment. We don’t arrive at it using rules. Either we feel beauty or we don’t.”
That’s how I feel about Lionel Messi. Words are not enough. It’s not a story either. Or even a highlight.
(Photo by Luis ROBAYO/AFP via Getty Images)
Messi’s GENIUS MUST felt without limitations or doubts. Because when he enters the field and dances with the ball, time stops. It always goes so fast for everyone else, but for him it’s calm. Messi changes direction like lightning, resists air and constantly avoids air pockets. He doesn’t just create moments of wonder, he only leaves dust on the field for an opponent to chase a shadow he never knew existed.
Messi has always been about deceiving reality. He’s been doing this since he was five years old, when he first entered a court under the illusion of an older child when his beloved deceased grandmother lied to the coach and told him he was older than he looked.
After that, he never looked back and the world of football would never be the same again.
(Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
Sunday’s game is against a team he kind of helped build, as Lamine Yamal’s pitch, and the many contenders from La Masia, is a result of the unwanted situation that happened in 2021 when Messi had to leave his beloved Barcelona.
But that story has been told. This match on Sunday is about Argentina and Spain – two Spanish-speaking nations facing each other in the land of immigrants. Right next to the stadium is the second largest shopping mall in the United States, the american dream. This is the perfect way to side the finale, as it is truly a match that represents this ethos – the ultimate search for happiness through hard work and perseverance, regardless of background.
Messi with his three sons. (Photo by German Adrasti/Getty Images)
Messi, like me, is a double immigrant. And like me, someone who left South America for Europe and finally the US. So I empathize and strangely connect with his journey, one that could come with even more history as he looks to win back-to-back World Cup titles for Argentina. Something only done twice in the history of the tournament.
History awaits. And so does the grief of a final battle, a final piece of poetry to be written.
We will all take it all in with the lingering, albeit failed, hope that time remains frozen.
But we know this will not happen. All we can do is stand up at the end of the match and, regardless of the score, applaud the genius, shed a tear and thank the football gods that through their efforts they gave us the miracle of Lionel Messi.
