🇳🇬 🗣️John Obi Mikel: "I will never forget what happened after the U-20 World Cup final against Argentina. Messi won the Golden Ball, and I won the Silver Ball, but I felt I deserved the Golden Ball. I approached him and said in Spanish, 'You stole the Golden Ball from me. I was better.'
Messi, with his characteristic humility, smiled and replied, 'It wasn't my decision; it was the committee's. But what you've done for your country is incredible.!' Later, when we crossed paths near the locker rooms, he offered to swap awards: 'If you want, take my Golden Ball and give me the Silver.' I laughed and said, 'I can't; you deserve it. I was just frustrated. Thank you for being so kind!'
Years later, we met again at the 2018 World Cup.
Messi greeted me, 'Hello, golden boy. I still have the photo from the awards ceremony! That's when I told him, 'Today I know you truly deserved that award. You the best Leo.🐐
If anything is abundantly clear, it’s that Argentina didn’t deserve to be in the final and that they progressed as far as they did because they were the beneficiaries of repeated instances of match fixing & FIFA corruption
“Who is the first person to send you a congratulations message”
Dembele : “It’s Lionel Messi.. that sent me the first text directly” 🇦🇷🇫🇷 ❤️
https://t.co/XXHnIFY15n
Firstly, Messi will be 43 in the next World Cup. Secondly, Messi will not force himself to play more games for Argentina once he can’t do it again.
One of the most intelligent things Messi has done as he aged is to ADAPT.
He has metamorphosed from explosive athleticism to elite intelligence. His positioning has now skyrocketed. For instance, look at where he received the pass from De Paul to score that first goal against Algeria, he picks spaces opponents don’t imagine he would.
The good part about Messi is that, in the glory days, he embraced playmaking, and now, that is paying off for him. He still drops those passes, crazy ones, those assists are still there.
The most important of them all is the energy conservation. Bro walks more than he runs, but hey, he’s Messi. Klopp was gave a speech to his players at Liverpool, he said “you cannot walk except you’re Messi”. Messi is allowed to do whatever off the ball, because when he’s on the ball, nobody else has his ability.
If you play against Messi, and you think he’s ineffective because he walks, the joke will be on you. Pep once said, while Messi walks, he is scanning everywhere. He knows where everyone is on the pitch, he’s reading the game to know where he can hurt you.
Those results you see on the ball, those spaces he picks up, yes, they’re offshoots of how he’s been reading the game while walking😅