The greater part of lives, in football and somewhere else, end in disappointment. The piercing goodbye, the indication of the temporary way of the gloria mundi, are well known parts of the account. Yet at the same time, there would be something frantically pitiful, urgently unfulfilling, urgently trite, if Lionel Messi's universal vocation were to end with a punishment blasted over the bar in East Ruther
ford.
The MetLife Stadium in New Jersey might be superbly designated, however it is not one of football's incredible enclosures. The Copa América Centenario may have demonstrated more captivating than numerous envisioned, however it is not one of football's awesome competitions – it is not even, Conmebol chose a week ago, a Copa América. This was not a spot for Lionel Messi to say farewell.
After Sunday's Copa América last thrashing to Chile, he sounded inflexible. "My reasoning right now and contemplating it in the changing area, I'm done playing with the national group," he said, face grave, scarcely ready to meet the eye of the columnists who encompassed him. "I attempted my hardest, it's been four finals yet I was not ready to win. I had a go at everything conceivable. It harms me more than anybody however it is obvious this is not for me."
That resounded what he had said before the amusement, when he had pondered sullenly three lost finals and talked about evolving history. It's just about as if Messi feels he is reviled, that he is the reason this awesome era, the players that won the Under-20 World Cup in 2005 and 2007 and held Olympic gold in 2008, can't win a senior trophy.
In any case, the feeling of frustration and disappointment goes more remote than that. Javier Mascherano has additionally resigned, while Sergio Agüero and Gonzalo Higuaín are thinking about their fates. Agüero missed two OK risks in the amusement. Higuaín squandered one, to run with the great chances he missed in a year ago's Copa América last and the World Cup last the prior year. Is it reasonable to accuse the Napoli striker? Not by any means, however it's difficult to not mirror that, for all the discussion of Argentina's 1986 World Cup-victors being Diego Maradona in addition to 10 others, Messi's worldwide record may look rather better on the off chance that he'd had a middle forward of the gauge of Jorge Valdano to play nearby.
Maybe Messi will, in time, alter his opinion. He is irate right now with the Argentinian Football Association, calling it a "debacle" in an Instagram post a week ago. He hence guaranteed to uncover precisely what he implied after the last. In any case, another president – the AFA is as of now in the hands of a Fifa standardization advisory group as it tries to deal with a tie in a year ago's presidential decisions, when one more vote was thrown than the quantity of agents present – maybe could entice him back. He is just 29.
Maybe there will be a radiant finale at the Luzhniki Stadium in the 2018 World Cup in Russia, or a somewhat less heavenly one at the Maracanã (or wherever Brazil holds the Copa América last) in 2019. Maradona, all things considered, had long stretches far from the national side. That is something that frequently is by all accounts overlooked when Messi's dedication to the national side is raised doubt about, a bandy that has come to appear to be progressively odd.
He plainly minds. Because he doesn't belt out the song of praise like Gianluigi Buffon doesn't change that. He may have moved to Spain when he was 11, yet he is especially Argentinian: his accent remains Rosarino, his most loved on-screen character is Ricardo Darin and his most loved sustenance is his mom's milanesas with tomato and cheddar. His crushed face as he was given the player of the competition grant after thrashing in the World Cup last in 2014 was affirmation: the individual honor made no difference to him.
It's reasonable that he ought to feel exhausted. He has played in significant competitions in each of the previous three (European) summers. It's genuinely clear that he doesn't discover turning out for Argentina much fun. The weight is dependably on. He's generally the substitute in the event that they lose. Disregard his cap trap against Panama, or his splendor against the USA, overlook the devastation of Paraguay in a year ago's semi-last or even the key objectives and the magnificent go for the victor against Switzerland in the World Cup. He's a bottler, he never does it in finals, he doesn't generally mind … the allegations must mesh. The truth of the matter is he played extremely well against Chile, confronted a dreadful kicking … and after that took the most exceedingly bad punishment of his life.
The shadow of El Diego hangs for ever over him. Messi has never done what Maradona did in Mexico in 1986. Which is valid. Be that as it may, then Messi's club vocation shrouds anything Maradona accomplished at club level: four Champions Leagues and eight group titles against a Uefa Cup and three alliance titles. The examination, obviously, is of just constrained pertinence.
They were altogether different times – yet then they were distinctive too at worldwide level. The World Cup then was the apogee of football; it is not presently.
In truth, Messi could have scored about six against Chile on Sunday and it would have had little effect to his notoriety. The individuals who need to reprimand could have said it's exclusive a strange supplementary Copa América and they'd have had some legitimization. Messi is an extraordinary player, one of the best ever: beating Chile wouldn't have affirmed that and losing doesn't undermine it.
In any case, the account maybe requests one final wonderfulness. The best triumphs are those that take after the best lows. The genuine legend must know and overcome difficulty, not simply ride the overlaid lift to achievement. Argentina's trust must be that in Russia in two years there is still one last section to be composed.
