Messi (59 page)

‘Only geniuses are capable of finishing as Messi did. They should have had to close the stadium after that,’ coach Coco Basile, who had replaced Pekerman, said that day.

In the space of two years, Messi was an Under 20 World Cup winner, a World Cup debutant and Copa América finalist against a Brazil side that had arrived at the competition with many second-string players (Ronaldinho and Kaká stayed at home) and Robinho as their star player. The
cariocas
had reached the final thanks to individual brilliance and despite uninspired collective performances, and almost nobody backed them. After an almost 15-year drought, it seemed that the
albiceleste
could win a title.

But Argentina were comprehensively beaten 3–0.

Olé
summed up the country’s feelings in four sentences: ‘We did not deserve an end like that. Everyone had fallen in love with our team but they broke our hearts against Brazil. After the shock, Basile must shuffle things around and start over. A cycle was ended in Venezuela.’

The team, lacking in cohesion, lived off its leading figures but had died with them. But, as the Argentinian newspaper stated, it was damaged by expectations that bordered on excessive: ‘Riquelme was not Zidane; nor was Messi Maradonita’. Leo was forgiven because of his age and rank, but harsh criticism was aimed at Riquelme, who some included in the resultant criticism.

Juan Román Riquelme, leader of the generation that won the Under 20 World Cup in 1997, had been entrusted with the task of being the saviour of the homeland. But he started to decline fatally in that Copa América. Riquelme was known as ‘
Tristelme
’ (a play on his name and
triste
, meaning sad). He fought, on and off the pitch, to maintain his status and quit his role as protector of the new star, Leo. If, in truth, he ever had been: the central midfielder is of the opinion that you have to pay your dues, you have to start very close to the bottom, no matter how much Julio Grondona hugs you, as he used to hug Leo – Riquelme himself only ever received a handshake from the president of the federation. On speaking about Barcelona, Riquelme always mentioned the importance of Xavi and especially Iniesta, ‘the genius’. Note the lack of recognition for Leo. Riquelme was suffering with the rise of ‘the Flea’.

Messi felt that the path to leadership was narrow and Riquelme was blocking his way. But he did not demand anything: and things were going to get much worse before he put all his efforts into creating a more harmonious national team.

Riquelme was given his last chance at the Beijing Olympics the following year.

In Argentina the period that started in 2008 with the defeat against Chile in the World Cup 2010 qualifying stage, and left the
albiceleste
seven points behind leaders Paraguay, is known as ‘the decline’. Something broke at that time and the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics with an Under 23 team was no compensation.

Summer 2008 was extremely tense in the Messi household. Leo wanted to go to the Olympics but Barcelona tried, initially, to deny him that opportunity, because it clashed with the Champions League qualifying round that the club had to win, thanks to their disastrous third-place finish the previous season. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) granted Barça legal authority to decide Leo’s future
with regard to the Games and Joan Laporta wanted Messi, who had joined the national team to prepare for the tournament, to return to the club tour in the United States and not miss the vital match against Wisła Kraków: one slip and Barcelona would be out of the main European competition.

‘People were saying that he was not going to come with us,’ remembers Oscar Ustari, reserve goalkeeper in that Under 23 team. ‘He said to me: “don’t worry, I’m going to do everything possible to come.”’

Guardiola, having just arrived as coach at Barcelona, had, with the departure of Ronaldinho and Deco, decided to make Leo Messi the focal point of the team, but during a phone call with him from his New York hotel he realised just how complicated a month ‘the Flea’ had had. Up to that point, Leo had always made himself available to the club, but in that conversation Messi, who was relying on the fact that Pep had been a player himself, and would understand him, asked him not to insist on his return. ‘Play in the Olympics and win the gold medal,’ Pep told him. In the ensuing press conference, Guardiola admitted to having noticed ‘a lot of emotional tension. I saw that he was very uncomfortable with the situation – it was not a good idea to bring him back, his head was in Beijing.’

Argentina, with Mascherano, Leo, Kun Agüero, and Riquelme as one of the over 23-year-olds allowed to play, were defending their gold medal won at Athens, and they did so successfully. And with Messi as the first name on the team sheet. They won every single game (1–0 in the final against Nigeria) without conceding a goal. Messi scored twice and was involved in five of the others.

That Olympic tournament is remembered for three things.

For something that was witnessed: a very public hug between Ronaldinho, with socks rolled down and a vacant gaze, and Leo, which lasted more than 30 seconds after the historic 3–0
albiceleste
victory over Brazil in the semi-finals. It was the symbolic representation of the passing over of the baton at Barcelona.

Also for something that was not widely witnessed, but remained etched in the memory of those who did see it. Ustari explains: ‘It was amazing to see Kobe Bryant going to say hello to my friend, not to the famous Lionel Messi, but to my friend Leo! “Kobe Bryant is going up to that lucky sod!” I was saying. This is what happened: we
went into the dining hall, I was filming and saying: “well, we have one or two of the best players in the world”, and just then Román [Riquelme] and Leo came out, and I filmed them. And I continued, “we can also see the world’s best in basketball”. Kobe was still a fair few feet away and I was pointing the camera at him. And I saw him walking towards us, and my hand and camera start shaking! Leo took everything calmly, well, in reality he didn’t know what to do. He seemed embarrassed about him [Bryant] coming over, he couldn’t believe it. And we took a photo with him, of course.’

And, thirdly, for something that was not seen, but felt. ‘There was a momentous change from the Under 20 World Cup to the Olympics, with the World Cup in between,’ continues Ustari. ‘Everyone our age changed. Given Leo’s trustworthy and likeable nature, he was already becoming a leader.’ So, what was going to happen to Riquelme?

The transition towards Leo’s Argentina began that year. ‘The Flea’ would return to Barcelona grateful to his new coach, and with the boost of new success with the national team.

He was now on the springboard.

The ‘decline’ of the national team would continue in 2008, and put Coco Basile’s position in danger. In a calculated initiative to pile pressure on the coach, Maradona singled Leo out as the culprit for the team’s poor performances. With the attitude of those who believe they are always right, he created a general mistrust of Messi in the minds of the average Argentine fans, who took Maradona’s word as gospel.

Argentina had just drawn 1–1 with Peru and Maradona had something to say about that. ‘Sometimes, Messi plays for Messi. He has so much arrogance that he forgets about his team-mates,’ he said in a telephone conversation on Fox Sports. ‘It is FC Messi. If he were to play more with Agüero or Riquelme, opposition defenders would have more to worry about. Matches are not won by attacking every time you have the ball, but by knowing how to attack. And you have to work on that.’

However, other players, argued Diego, deserved the fans’ affection. ‘I hope he is better than me, but just now Mascherano is more important to Argentina than Riquelme and Lionel. And the team
has to look after Tévez much more – all he is asking for is security. Not the captaincy or anything extraordinary. That insecurity leads him to do more than he actually can manage and he is all over the place.’

‘Leo lacks character,’ he had said previously, suggesting that Messi had not put up enough of a fight against Barcelona in their pre-Olympics conflict with the Argentine Football Association. In reality, Messi had fought, but without announcing it openly to the media. What was Maradona up to? Surely he was only too aware of the pressure associated with wearing the sky-blue and white shirt and conscious that Messi was only 21 at the time?

These were Maradona’s thoughts at the start of the close season: Messi would be subject to criticism, even before maturing in the national team. A negative image of Messi was now being created and as far as most critics were concerned it would only become positive if he won matches on his own. And a World Cup, if possible. Just as Maradona had done. An enormous task.

Leo and his family were hurt by those words. After another long journey from Buenos Aires, where he had played for the national side, Leo answered in his own way on his arrival at Barcelona airport: ‘I’m used to Diego speaking out. We all know what he is like.’

There was a theory doing the rounds at the Argentine Football Association: some day, so as to silence Maradona’s continual criticism, the best thing to do would be to make him coach of the
albiceleste
. If he was successful, fantastic. If he wasn’t, he would have nothing more to say. The mistakes and bad results in the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign caused Basile to resign from the national team after a defeat against Chile, and in autumn 2008
el Pelusa
, Maradona, was appointed coach of Argentina.

Little more than a year after the Maradona-esque goals (the one against Getafe, of course, but also that handball against Espanyol), Maradona himself, having acquired no coaching badges and with a grand total of three victories in his two stints as manager with Mandiyú and Racing Club in the Nineties, was about to find himself on the same pitch as his heir apparent.

One of the new coach’s first tasks was to try to fit Messi’s talent into the squad, something he had never previously considered when criticising him from the sidelines. Some aspects of his game
were certainly starting to cause concern: his disconnection with the midfield, his lack of alternatives for releasing the ball, the few passes that he received and his insistence on making an individual run when there was a lack of support. The team had to improve, but so did Messi’s decisions and performances.

Maradona, who needed some good results and as quickly as possible in order to get Argentina’s qualifying campaign back on track, had one thing in his favour: Leo, now free of those who, consciously or otherwise, had prevented him from blossoming at Barcelona, was playing his best football under the team’s new coach, Pep Guardiola. Maradona’s job was to create the right sort of atmosphere with Argentina so that Messi could make a similar impact with the national team.

They had two years together, Diego and Leo, to get it right, with all eyes on the World Cup in South Africa in 2010.

So began Leo’s trial before the Argentine public. Although Carlitos Tévez was the ‘village player’, more popular than Leo at home in Argentina, Messi had officially become the saviour of the homeland.

(A video of Maradona looking at the camera appears and he says: ‘Leo, you know that I love you a lot, let the others do the talking, you’re going to be the best player in history. We will decide that when you hang up your boots. Today carry on doing what you’re doing and I hope you’re happy with your family. I love you a lot, Leo’)

(Leo Messi, interview with Martín Souto, TyC Sports, March 2013)

Leo’s father took his six-year-old son to the Newell’s Old Boys stadium to enjoy the performance of a declining Diego Maradona who was preparing for the 1994 World Cup. The club organised a friendly against Emelec of Ecuador and, as on other occasions, Leo was asked to come onto the pitch to do keepy-uppies with a ball that seemed twice the size of the one the adults were using. ‘No problem, I would love to do it,’ he told his father when he suggested it to him. He did not feel nervous or under pressure. People were shouting at him ‘Maradooo, Maradooo’.

But Leo does not remember any of that. He remembers scoring two goals in his first game for Grandoli at the age of four. But nothing about the Emelec day. Maradona was Jorge Messi’s idol (he kept videos of him, which he would play now and then) and that of his generation, a veneration which continued with the next generation of supporters. And the next, and the next.

‘Leo told me a story which explains everything,’ Cristina Cubero says. ‘I asked him about Diego and he told me: “I get it that you don’t understand the Maradona phenomenon. For Argentines he is much more than a footballer, and since I was little, I would go to my cousins’ on both sides of the family and the first thing we would do would be to sit down and watch the goals against England. I have grown up watching his goals on tape. Our greeting to each other would be: let’s go and watch Maradona’s goals.”’