The perceived announcement by Lionel Messi of his retirement from international duties for Argentine national football team has shocked the world. The Barcelona superstar was left heartbroken after another failure of the La Albiceleste in a major final after the team went down to Chile in the Copa America Centenario final on Sunday. However, the retirement announcement came out of the blue as the world could not imagine the Little Flea, still only 29, would retire at the height of his powers.
There is a raging debate whether Messi really meant it. There is hope that he would change his mind. But sadly, maybe he won’t. Perhaps this really is it at the international level for a generational talent who finally just got sick of it all. It could be that Messi had been contemplating this for a long time after his team missed the golden chance to win the World Cup in the final against Germany in 2014.
Going into the Copa final, the little genius was frustrated along with his team-mates, at the incompetent travel arrangements Argentina’s national federation had put together that caused delays and left them fatigued ahead of the Copa final. He was frustrated with himself for his inability to crack the code of Chile defence during 120 minutes that ended scoreless. And frustrated with a level of refereeing that belonged in a pub league. That culminated in the spot kick that he blazed over the bar into the New Jersey night. A night of darkness that descended onto his Argentina career as his team went out on penalties yet again. The moment of truth had arrived. What next?
For now, he wanted to quit. It was after failures in four major finals. The decision, though highly emotional, was understandable. Playing for Argentina is not much fun for him any more. The Argentine federation is a joke, corrupted by utter mismanagement, so shambolic that FIFA had to assume control last week. It is not much fun because for years his countrymen have questioned his commitment, said he is more Catalan than Argentinian after most of his life in Barcelona, even when tears streamed down his face at the World Cup and the last Copa America and again on Sunday. However hard he tries, he can’t come out of the shadow of El Diego. Messi has never done what Diego Maradona did in Mexico in 1986. But it’s not entirely his fault that Argentina keep contriving ways to let major silverware slip away. The nation that breathes football has not won a big one
since 1993.
But then Messi’s club career eclipses anything Maradona achieved at club level: four Champions Leagues and eight league titles against a UEFA Cup and three league titles. And Messi is not the kind of character to give up on a dream, however much pain he endures and when a few more tears have been shed and the dust of the Copa disaster settles, a new reality may set in. He will surely be back, not because football needs him and craves his presence at events like the 2018 World Cup. No, it will be because he will find he needs this. Maybe he will still end up as a tragic hero, but there’s still one last chapter to be written.
