What happened at this World Cup, and why Lionel Messi and Argentina suddenly started receiving hate, was simple.
Ronaldo and his fans didn’t expect a 39-year-old Lionel Messi to still turn up at this World Cup. They were genuinely shocked when Messi started scoring goals and providing assists in clutch moments to win games for Argentina. This made the world see the light about Lionel Messi. Messi was getting his deserved accolades, and even some Ronaldo fans started coming out to admit that Messi is the GOAT, even if Ronaldo is their personal GOAT.
During this period, the hate campaigns hadn’t started because, if they had, Ronaldo fans wouldn’t have been publicly declaring Messi as the GOAT. There were still a few “rigged” allegations here and there from the Argentina vs Algeria foul incident, but that was just normal fan match reaction. Nothing extreme. Even though Croatia had a clear goal controversially disallowed, we didn’t see the same reaction from viewers as you would expect if Portugal were Argentina.
Ronaldo scored two goals against Uzbekistan and said, “I’m back.” Those are the comments of someone who’s under pressure to prove a point, someone who’s trying to show that he’s still got it. This came after Messi had scored a hat-trick against Algeria and two goals against Austria, earning 9.3 and 9.6 ratings respectively. After two matches, Messi was already on five goals, while Ronaldo had a 6.3 rating against DR Congo and got the banter of his life. Meanwhile, Messi was being celebrated all over the world. Everyone was in awe of what he was doing at the age of 39. It was as if he was erasing the debate and putting a permanent end to it.
Bingo! That’s when the unexpected happened.
We started seeing American pages that had never talked about football before saying Argentina were rigging games, with zero context. The shocking part wasn’t even that these pages were posting it it was the magnitude at which they were receiving traction. You could tell there was a heavily sponsored campaign going on.
What did Messi do wrong?
He played football better than Ronaldo.
The moment Ronaldo got knocked out by Spain, it tripled. To the point that Messi, who always received praise after his masterclasses, no longer did. Instead, the hate propaganda overshadowed the beautiful football he played.
Messi may not have won his second World Cup, but he’ll retire knowing that, on the biggest stage, in their last World Cup, he was the one who proved why he’s the greatest, while the other guy went out disgracefully, proving why he isn’t.
Coming together to celebrate Black culture and The Arsenal ❤️
Wrapping up a special night at the Black Arsenal panel at UCL East, as part of this summer’s The Music is Black Festival 👇
My baby dropped the Deluxe for his phenomenal album #FUJI
Featured his wife, the Soft Queen, on #BlueFire
About a week before the baby came, I was still mixing the songs. I was too sick to mix the main album, so I was determined to mix #FujiXtra - Beautiful Songs from a beautiful man!!! If you haven't yet, go listen. 💙
@FanuelMkisi@AFC__Xtra@HandofArsenal How can you say Arteta and Berta are not serious?? Berta delivered good signings for us last season and we won the premier league. Arteta did what no one can do in the last 22yrs and yet you complain. Nigerians are so hard to please i swear
I have to say what Marquinhos did following the UEFA Champions League final is some of the best sportsmanship I have seen in a long time. I know #Arsenal man Gabriel is his country man and close friend but to immediately do what he did, I have a huge amount of respect for him 🤝 🇧🇷
Through the ups and downs - we felt your backing every step of the way this season, Gooners 👏
We can't wait to celebrate an historic season with you later today in N5 ❤️
Be proud of yourself king Gabriel, You all made us proud and gave Arsenal the chance of a lifetime having won us the league after 22 years, we will forever be grateful 🙏🙏
My beloved Arsenal fans.. Don’t be too disappointed… Be proud of this team and everything they’ve achieved. Keep believing and keep supporting them the way you always do. We are in the right direction. I’m so happy I got to experience this game from the stands with the Arsenal family for the very first time ❤️ Thank you for the incredible welcome and all the love. You made me feel like I’m really one of you, next year will be our time. Love you Gunners 🙏❤️