Messi (84 page)

Even though Leo’s suggestion of including Villa in the team was working for the team, it became patently obvious that Messi, like the team itself, needed someone to direct his talent, instincts and needs. Barcelona’s football became an exchange of blows with the opposition – goals at both ends, no control. It was to no one’s benefit, and it was shortening Leo’s football life: with limits, with challenges and targets, Messi can last much longer; his influence is more effective when there are clear parameters and guidelines.

Without clear leadership, lines get blurred and confusion reigns.

In a game before the one against Bayer Leverkusen, Alexis scored twice but also got a rocket from Leo for not passing when he should have done. The players who got it from Messi were forwards and wingers, those who have to deliver the ball: Leo’s demands have their roots in football. But he was also one of the leading figures in the dressing room, just as Ronaldinho had been before him, and only those who dare to challenge the establishment grow, as Leo had done in getting into the first team. Those who cannot meet this challenge fall by the wayside.

Incidentally, Pinto, Leo’s pal and protector, is a goalkeeper, like Oscar Ustari and Juan Cruz Leguizamón, two of his best friends. Leo has always felt at home with them, apparently more so than with the others. Maybe because they are all outsiders, or ‘different’ (
el distinto
), as they were described in the book about Messi published by
Olé
in 2013.

In any case, the tension on the pitch, the footballing disputes, came about once again because of the absence of leadership. The boy who had made such great efforts to get to the highest level now faced another challenge: how to handle success. The struggle hadn’t stopped, it had just changed.

The year finished with two great pieces of news for Messi: on 2 November his son Thiago was born, Leo and Antonella’s first child. At exactly 17.14, fourteen minutes past five in the afternoon Twitter went nuts: first because of the good news, and because the time of birth, 1714, is the year of the Catalan defeat by the Spanish Bourbons in the War of Spanish Succession, and in honour of which the national day of Catalonia is commemorated.

And, secondly, Leo renewed his contract.

After a telephone call Leo gave the go-ahead for a contract renewal that was announced at the same time as those of Xavi and Puyol, with a view to sending out a message of dressing-room harmony. The two senior players and the star of the side were pledging their futures to the club. Jorge Messi had received – and rejected – a sensational offer from a Russian club willing to pay €400 million for his son; Leo would have received €32 million a year.

He had renewed his contract on two occasions with Guardiola, and now signed a new one with Tito until 2018. The buyout clause of €250 million stayed in place, his fixed wage rose to €13 million net (€22 gross) and he received a bonus of €3.2 million a year for playing 60 per cent of matches.

Barcelona, despite doubts about their style, continued on a steady
path in the league, while in Madrid the climate of tension and mistrust grew; the wheels had well and truly come off just a few months after the eternal rivals had won the league.

But, head to head, José Mourinho had evolved a tactical plan for his team that made Leo’s contribution more difficult. Leo had equalled Alfredo Di Stéfano’s record of 18 goals in
clásicos
, but the
blancos
’ high defensive line was choking him and keeping him away from goal. Madrid knocked Barcelona out of the cup after a 1–1 draw at the Bernabéu, followed by a 3–1 victory at the Camp Nou.

According to Diego Torres in his book, Mourinho instructed his players to tap Messi on the face, an action which, the Portuguese had learned, infuriated him. Alvaro Arbeloa and Xabi Alonso did just that, to the astonishment of Leo, who looked to the linesman flabbergasted.

At the end of the game there was the leaking of an alleged incident that took place with Mourinho’s loyal assistant, Aitor Karanka (apparently Leo said to him, ‘What the f— are you looking at, you Mourinho puppet?’), and also with Arbeloa to whom he crossed over and said, ‘What are you looking at you, you clown? I’ll be waiting for you in Barcelona.’

In a post-match press conference, José Callejón, one of Mourinho’s players, explained: ‘I saw the thing with Aitor because I was coming up behind him. Maybe it’s normal that we’re all a bit wound up on the pitch and we say things that we regret later. But a fellow professional waiting an hour, to an hour and a half, to abuse another professional who was with his wife is over the top.’

Barcelona had left the stadium 45 minutes after the end of the game and eyewitnesses claim that Leo was heading for the bus when Arbeloa came out in his car, but that no conversation took place. Paco García Caridad, the prestigious journalist for Madrid newspaper
Marca
, said on air and on Twitter: ‘the attempt to discredit Messi leans toward the grotesque. Who leaks these things that Messi is supposed to have done? Mou? His number two? Do we know who the leak is? Now, do we have to besmirch Messi’s image?’ The object of the exercise was nonetheless clear: to add fuel to a campaign that had begun months earlier, coinciding with Messi’s words with Villa, and designed to discredit him even more.

In any case his goals and the consistent performances of Iniesta
were disguising the deficiencies that were beginning to threaten the team. Injuries to Xavi and Puyol, two of the senior players, had left them weaker, while another, Víctor Valdés, had told the club that he would be leaving at the end of his contract, in the summer of 2013. Training sessions lacked intensity, players became angrier when not selected. On the pitch the lines weren’t coming together and teams were scoring against them too easily. Barcelona conceded goals in thirteen games on the trot. It had all become routine and was lacking precision and tactical cohesion.

Then it was April, the most important stage of the season, the one in which titles are decided. Ramón Besa summed up in
El País
what the team lacked. ‘What’s needed is to close the gym and the clinic, take the roll call at training and rediscover the culture of trying harder.’

During those weeks Leo did not look happy. ‘Day-to-day he looks normal, he looks fine,’ said Dani Alvés in
El Mundo
around that time. ‘But I’m no hypocrite, I don’t paint over things. It’s quite clear that in the past few games his morale has been low. Why? I don’t know, I haven’t tried to find out. I only want to know what people want to share with me. And if someone doesn’t want to share their life, or how they are living it, who am I to ask? I respect his space. But I have noticed that he is a bit more down than usual.’

Despite his enormous effectiveness in the league, where he managed to score in 19 consecutive games and 38 times in 25 matches, Messi was invisible in the Cup
clásicos
, and again when they met AC Milan in the away leg in the last 16 of the Champions League, where a 2–0 defeat exposed Barcelona’s shortcomings.

Marcelo Sottile, assistant secretary of the newspaper
Olé
, skilfully explained the team mood. ‘Barcelona seem to be a depressed team. The mirror doesn’t reflect the image of the best, the most beautiful. Now you just see eleven dispirited faces; little individual inspiration; little tactical awareness from the bench, and not even much physicality – a product either of tired legs or tired minds – that can change the rhythm and overcome the strategies of Milan and Madrid, who have both beaten them with organisation and a lot of football.’

Leo exercised his leadership and declared on ESPN: ‘The team is a little lacklustre. We’ve had some bad results and now is the time to pick ourselves up, to believe in ourselves, to do the same things we have been doing for years.’

They needed a comeback at the Camp Nou in the return leg.

But it would prove to be the club’s swansong.

Around this time Leo was asked on Barça TV if he needed to rest
since he was playing every game. ‘It’s good for me to accumulate playing time because that way I don’t lose my rhythm,’ was his reply.

2 February 2013. Next round of the Champions League, quarter-finals against PSG, with Tito Vilanova in the dugout. Messi, who had scored the first goal of the game, feels a pull in his right leg and is substituted at half-time. Juanjo Brau has taught him to listen to his body and he asks to be substituted. Ibrahimović equalises ten minutes from the end. The game finishes 2–2 after Xavi’s penalty in the eighty-ninth minute and an error from Valdés in time added on.

3 April 2013. Medical tests reveal a tear of the femoral bicep. The muscle used for sprints and changes of pace once again. Messi is ruled out of the next game against Mallorca.

10 April 2013. Messi is on the bench for the return leg against PSG. The French take the lead with a goal from Pastore: they play with speed and courage and frighten Barcelona. In what looks like a reflex action following the scoring of the goal, Messi pulls his socks up, watching and waiting from the bench: his participation is part of the plan if things are not going well, although, quite clearly, his injury needs far longer to heal.

He comes onto the pitch twelve minutes after the goal.

The technical staff stick their own El Cid on the back of the horse.

Frightened, PSG retreat.

‘The number 10 eliminated PSG with one play, one touch, one pass and one chance. Imperious for an hour, the French side surrendered at the very sight of Messi. Beaten, lost, vanquished, the
azulgrana
felt invincible for half an hour with their number 10,’ wrote Ramón Besa.

‘It’s the Leo effect,’ says Cesc Fàbregas. ‘He came on for me, and just by him coming onto the pitch the crowd’s spirits were lifted.’

‘When he came on, we all felt bigger, stronger,’ admitted Piqué.

‘It’s a bit of what Leo creates,’ said Mascherano. ‘They were dominating us, we were about to be eliminated from the competition: and he comes on, on one leg, manages to draw three players and makes the play for Pedro to finish. On one leg!’

The goal from Pedro earns a 1–1 draw and passage into the semi-finals of the Champions League.

11 April 2013. Further tests on Messi reveal that, despite playing against PSG, the injury has not been aggravated.