As a professional footballer, Lionel Messi stands second to none when it comes to individual skills. He is an amazingly talented player and can definitely be considered as one of the greatest players of all time. Recently, Messi became a hot topic of discussion not because of this football achievements but his retirement from Argentina’s national team. What made Messi take such a decision?
Everybody makes mistakes and a genius like Messi is not an exception. He missed the first kick in the penalty shootout in the Copa America 2016 final against Chile and eventually, his team lost the match by 4-2. With that, Argentina lost the opportunity to win their first major title in 23 years. It was a huge setback for both Argentina and Messi. Emotions took over and the little genius was almost inconsolable after the loss. On the spur of the moment, he took the decision of quitting from Argentina’s national football team like any other vulnerable human being.
Was the penalty miss the only reason behind Messi taking such a decision? When you analyze deeper, you cannot agree. For a player like Lionel, who has won many awards and recognitions as an individual player and achieved almost everything in club football; helping his national team win major tournaments was a natural progression of his football journey. In 2007 Copa America cup, he came close to it but lost to Brazil in the final. Messi was only a promising youngster during that time.
Again in 2014 world cup, his team was defeated by Germany in the final. It was a huge setback for Messi because he became a fully fledged super star by that time and failing to clear the final hurdle was really disappointing for this genius. Once again, his team lost to Chile in the 2015 Copa America finals and finally, the defeat in 2016 hit the nail in the coffin.
In order to make matters worse, former great players like Maradona criticized him for his inability to motivate the national team to win major titles. All these things played an important role in making Lionel quit from Argentina’s national team. Fortunately, he has changed his mind because of the relentless and passionate appeal from football lovers all around the world. This man definitely deserves a world cup title in his kitty. Let us pray that is genius is going to lift the world cup in Russia in 2018
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