22nd Nov, 2022: Messi plays the first of his last.
This is a small piece for Messi fans, which I wrote when Argentina was knocked out by Brazil in the R016 of World Cup, 2018.
And today 22nd Nov 2022.
Argentina leaded by Messi will play their first match of this edition.
It was the 14th of July 2014 when Argentina
played that world cup final. Led by Alejandro Sabella, the albicelestes were in scintillating form but the opponents were mighty Germans
I remember asking my dad to wake me up when the match starts, I was just 14 at that time. But somehow my dad didn't have to wake me up, I woke up myself 5 minutes before the match, and such was my love for Argentina and Messi. I don't exactly remember the specifics of that match but I remember the gotze goal in the 113th minute that made Germany the world champions.
At 14, I first realized what true heartbreak was like. For a moment you feel like being choked, you can't breathe and the tears won't stop. I had never felt sadder.
The year passed and in the following years of 2015 and 2016, Argentina again lost two consecutive finals. Messi decided to retire. I didn't want him to face the allegations and hurtful comments that he didn't deserve. I didn't want him to be burned at the stake. But he did, for his country, for his fans. He was literally burned at the stake by the media, by his countrymen, and by his haters. He took it all in silently because he was this little boy from a little town called Rosario.
He guided his team to the world cup 2018 all single-handedly but there's a limit to what he can do. Argentina was eliminated in RO16 in the world cup but they didn't go down without putting up a fight. The pain returned but we including Messi suffered it silently. Messi's bad fate isn't limited to the international scene, it's the same in the club scene where he doesn't have capable teammates to complement his immense talent but still, he took the team singlehandedly to a treble.
Only luck didn't want him to win it and he fell short by two matches.
Today Argentina got knocked out by Brazil,
Messi won't admit it but he is broken from
the inside. Even after doing so much for his country, he is seen as a traitor, criminal. I will still be looking forward to every match that he plays because what he does isn't football, but the art of the highest order. Art for which we live, art for which we breathe. Next season, I will again keep my alarm clocks ready, destroy my sleep cycle just to get a glimpse of my little man doing magic.
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