FIFA World Cup | Messi’s last chance to change Maradona’s Argentina template

Qatar 2022 could be everything about Lionel Messi, whose three previous FIFA World Cups ended in heartbreaks.

Does football owe a World Cup to Lionel Messi?

When the genius, who has won almost everything in his career with Barcelona, steps onto the Lusail Iconic Stadium in Doha for a Group C match against Saudi Arabia on November 22, it will be the start of a dream campaign that could put the ultimate feather in the cap of the 35-year-old Argentine legend. Among the favourites to win their first World Cup since 1986, La Albiceleste’s quest for a third cup will not be an easy one with Mexico and Poland in their path to the knockouts. Then there could be Denmark, and England, or the Netherlands.

The power of stardom is infinite. It has the incredible ability to polarise the mind. Why are we only talking about Messi’s final World Cup, when there is a clutch of superstars such as Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, Poland’s Robert Lewandowski, Uruguay’s Luis Suarez, Croatia’s Luka Modric, Manuel Neuer and Thomas Muller of Germany, and Dani Alves of Brazil — all unlikely to be seen at the 2026 World Cup in North America?

Qatar 2022 could be everything about Messi, whose three previous FIFA World Cups ended in heartbreaks. The man, who has scored some incredible goals with his God-gifted left foot, has always ended up as a picture of pain and forlornness wearing the famous blue and white stripes of Argentina.

Who can forget Messi’s face after he squandered a spotkick in the all-important Copa America 2016 final against Chile at the Met Life Stadium in New Jersey. After Chile won 4-2 on penalties, Messi, drenched with embarrassment, emotionally announced his Argentina career was over. So did many others. Messi’s predicament was unacceptable by his legion of fans. He was only 29!

Stars are almost always driven by numbers. Cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar, who quit playing for India only after playing 100 internationals, is a classic example. Messi’s decision to quit was certainly not an emotional one. The Copa 2016 defeat only extended Argentina’s 23-year trophy-less run. It also added to Messi’s personal misery. He had lost four finals with the national side — at the 2014 World Cup against Germany and three Copa Americas, in 2007, 2015, and 2016!

Qatar 2022 surely will be Messi’s last World Cup, and there is considerable belief that Argentina will give him a fitting farewell having won the 2021 Copa America, beating traditional rivals Brazil by a 22nd minute Angel di Maria goal at the famous Maracana in Rio de Janeiro. Maria will again be alongside Messi, and given the fact that head coach Lionel Scaloni has overhauled Team Argentina to a more balanced outfit, will enable Messi and Co to play with greater freedom, and ingenuity.

More than Messi, 44-year-old Scaloni is being seen as the messiah for Argentina football. The role of the coach has always been overemphasised in world football and in Argentina’s case, it is no different. Scaloni took over as boss after Argentina’s exit in the 2018 World Cup in Russia, and transformed the team from a top-heavy side, with a luxury of riches upfront, to a more balanced unit with muscle in defence and agility in mid-field. The impact was felt when Argentina defeated Euro winners Italy in June’s ‘Finalissima.’

Winning Copa America was a massive proof of a ‘complete’ team. The greatest coach-player combination has scarcely been a success story. No one knows it better than Argentina when the dream combination of Diego Maradona-Lionel Messi failed in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Germany, and circumstances showed Argentina the true reality.

Messi’s Argentina arrives in Qatar with a 35-match unbeaten streak, and with immense potential to break Europe’s 16-year-old stranglehold on the World Cup. No one knows better than Messi that it’s now or never, once again.

A lot of football will be played in the mind too, and Messi, known to be the ‘quiet’ leader, showed another side of his captaincy when he injected several doses of passion into Team Argentina with an emotional speech ahead of the Copa final versus Brazil. In the context of mental health forced upon by the COVID-19 pandemic, Messi’s speech in the dressing room was laced with the joy of being in a family, making personal sacrifices, and winning something worthwhile together.

If there is a test of leadership for Messi, Qatar 2022 will be the one. Argentina’s football template was probably never written keeping Messi in mind. It was perhaps designed after Diego Maradona, one of football’s most colourful characters on and off the field. Jonathan Wilson, the author of ‘Angels with dirty faces: The footballing history of Argentina’, has been quoted as saying in Al Jazeera that: “… if you were to erect a statue of Argentinian football, it would be the urchin child in the streets, he’d have this massive dark hair, he’d be short and squat. His teeth would be worn down by eating yesterday’s bread, his shirt would be eaten by the mice (and) he’s coming from an impoverished background. When Maradona arrives it’s like ‘this is the one’ and broadly speaking, he lived up to that with huge lows whereas Messi, it’s a different physical type, he doesn’t fit the template.”

So, Qatar will also decide who is Argentina’s greatest footballer, and Messi has some serious catching up to do. He has never scored a goal for Argentina in the knockouts. Interestingly, Qatar 2022 will be the first World Cup in 44 years where Maradona will be missing. There will be no Maradona popping up in the stands like he did in Russia 2018, or in the press box.

Was Maradona a curse on Messi? Only time will tell. But all said and done, Argentina, on form, are a convincing prospect, and Messi is in great mental shaping coming on the back of a good season with goals, and assists.

The World Cup in Lionel Messi’s hands will be the ultimate image of worshipping luminous human talent. It will be a fitting tribute to a man who made football a piece of fine art, and provided sheer magic and happiness to millions of fans with his imagination and versatility. Greatness is not always perfect. Winning the World Cup will only add to the Messi legacy.

Soumitra Bose is a senior sports journalist, and a research scholar. Twitter: @Soumitra65. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.