The greatest triumphs sometimes follow the greatest lows. Ten years ago, a 29-year-old Lionel Messi — with eight La Liga titles, four Champions Leagues and five of his eight Ballon d’Or awards in his bag at that time while playing for Barcelona — decided that it was enough for him to live with the pain.“It’s over me, that’s it. I tried so hard but it just isn’t happening,” Messi, crestfallen and his psyche shattered, announced as the ‘end’ came with his missed penalty in a defeat to Chile in the Copa America final in New Jersey, extending his personal misery to four lost finals with the national side — at the 2014 World Cup against Germany and three at Copa America (2007, 2015 and now 2016). “It hurts not to be a champion with Argentina,” he made his frustration known to all, his face betraying a tormented soul’s melancholy.The world received the news with shock and awe, some dubbing it ‘Mexit’ and many urging him to stay on as social media was immediately flooded with the hashtags #NoTeVayasMessi and #QuedateMessi. Diego Maradona also came in his protege’s support, urging him to “fight against all those who abandoned him.”By the time La Albiceleste assembled two months later for the World Cup qualifiers against Uruguay and Venezuela he was back in the mix, saying he loved Argentina “too much” to stay away from the team. The rest, as they say, is history. He finally rode into World Cup lore in 2022 — a coronation with his peace of mind in La Albiceleste colours — in between two Copa America titles (in 2021 and 2024), and the legend of Messi was thus born in his birthplace Rosario, elsewhere in Argentina and everywhere around the world.Yet, the burden of being Messi in Argentina’s psyche has always been complicated and nuanced. His fate has remained intertwined with Maradona since the kid from Rosario had decided to move out of Argentina and carve out his legacy as a Barcelona player. What has come out of it is a rich portrait of a connection between two World Cup-winning captains, always revolving around the axis of its inherent fragility. As England appear on Argentina’s horizon in the World Cup again, the question lingers: How Maradona-ised Messi and his legacy can be?Four decades ago, when the two nations clashed, it resulted in seismic waves in world football as the game, national identity and the lingering shadow of a war converged in the 1986 World Cup quarterfinal at the Azteca stadium. This was a match in which Maradona’s magnum opus was played out with every bit of Argentina’s magic and mischievousness. The ‘Hand of God’ goal was woven with deception, bringing to the fore rivalry and prevailing mistrust between the two teams four years after the Falklands War. Maradona’s second one came as a moment of catharsis.Yet, the 1986 quarterfinal might not be as wild and emotionally turbulent as what Messi, born three years after the Falklands War, would have been willing to endure on way to the fulfillment of his destiny in Lusail, 2022.Messi’s march towards being the master of his legacy is essentially devoid of Maradona’s paradox and this is why he might be more at ease in reconstructing his mentor’s second piece of Azteca magic.True that the second semifinal at the Atlanta Stadium now is not picking up around any tangible concept of Malvinas, but it’s coming with its own palpable psychological space. It’s a “special” one for Messi because it’s his first one against England, giving us a glimpse into how a whole generation has not seen La Albiceleste crossing swords with the Three Lions since 1986.For an Argentine, Maradona will always be a rebel and a redeemer. An unknown and accidental manager Lionel Scaloni inherited a team in a state of evolution after the 2018 World Cup and made Messi break from the ‘savior’ complex and unleashed a whole new set of players with hunger and a predominant we-play-for-Messi mentality. The other day, Leandro Parades said, “We also play for him, because we don’t want the day to come when this is his last match with us.”Pablo Aimar, Scaloni’s assistant, was also hailed as the next big No. 10 after Maradona and fell short of getting the nation over the line.They have suffered together and made Argentina great again. Perhaps in a tad un-Maradona way.
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