It was a humid evening in Dallas when Argentina played Algeria in Kansas City in Lionel Messi’s first game of this World Cup. A few of us found a pub called the Rope and Bucket pub in downtown and sat on a busy patio watching the big screen.
Each time Messi scored, his goal was met with a roar of approval. That was the night he hit his first World Cup hat-trick. Everyone was delighted the little maestro still had it.
There is something about watching Messi play and Messi score that validates the viewer as well as Messi himself. It is as if it is proof for a generation of football fans that he is every bit as good as we have always said he is. It is the joy of being in the presence of greatness, even at a few hundred – or a few thousand – miles remove. It is relief that he is still as beautiful to watch as ever.
I watched Argentina’s second game, against Austria, in the press box at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia ahead of France’s match with Iraq. That was when Messi broke Miroslav Klose’s record and became the scorer of the most goals in World Cup history. And even though I was surrounded by journalists this time, the cheers were the same.
There was even applause. Reporting on Messi has been the great gift for sports journalists of my generation. We may have missed England winning the World Cup in 1966, we may have missed Pele and the Brazil 1970 side but we’ve had 20 years of covering the greatest footballer there has ever been. To see him still doing it, to see him transcendent, brings only joy.
And I watched Argentina’s third game, against Jordan, in a bar in Manhattan. We spent most of the night enjoying the roller-coaster game between Austria and Algeria but when Messi came off the bench and stood over a free-kick on the edge of the box, everyone swivelled in their seats to watch the screen showing that game. Messi scored. It was met with delighted laughter. It was his sixth goal of the tournament.
I watched Lionel Messi break Miroslav Klose’s World Cup goals record from a press box in Philadelphia. Even though I was surrounded by journalists the cheers were hearty
When Messi scored against Jordan, the goal was met with delighted laughter by those I was with. When he plays he brings only joy
But now the group stage is over and we are into the knock-out rounds. And so we have to accept that from now on, the next time we see Messi play might be the last time and that, one way or another, a career that has trailed like a golden thread through all our lives for two decades is coming to an end.
I’ll be there at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on Friday night when Argentina meet Cape Verde in the Round of 32. And even though Cape Verde winning would be a beautiful, romantic story, I don’t want it to happen. I want Messi’s top-line career to go on for as long as possible.
I’m being greedy, I guess. I’ve been very lucky. I saw him play for the first time when Barcelona came to Stamford Bridge to play Chelsea in the Champions League in 2006. Messi tormented the Chelsea defence. You didn’t have to be a fine judge of horseflesh to realise you were witnessing the start of something special.
I was at the Champions League finals he graced for Barcelona in 2009 and 2011, dismantling Manchester United both times. I saw him finally lift the World Cup at the Lusail Stadium in Qatar in 2022. I took my son to see him play at the Nou Camp. He’s not particularly interested in football but I still wanted him to be able to say he saw the greatest play live.
And, last year, just before the start of the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, I managed to get to Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets baseball team, to see him score two brilliant goals in Inter Miami’s demolition of New York City.
If you love football, every time you see Messi play, it’s life-affirming. Everything about the way he plays the game – his vision, his reading of a match, his movement, his touch, his technique, the way he strikes the ball, his passing, his dead-ball expertise – is a joy.
It’s the small things, too. It’s the mannerisms, it’s the aplomb. There was something bewitching about his second goal against Algeria. It was a tap-in, really, but Messi turned it into art. The way he let the ball come on to him for just long enough to make the goalkeeper commit himself, the way he disguised his finish until the last second then rolled the ball past him with his right foot.
And on Friday, I’ll get to see him play live in one more World Cup and I’ll do everything I can to preserve the pictures in my mind. I don’t particularly like the rest of the Argentina team. They are a singularly unprepossessing bunch but Messi redeems them all. He is their human shield. If he’s in the side, it is hard not to want them to win, even against an underdog like Cape Verde, so we can all get to see him play at least one more time.
Now that Messi could walk away at any moment, it is time to savour his every kick
If you love football, every time you see Messi play, it’s life-affirming. Everything about the way he plays the game – his vision, his reading of a match, his movement, his touch…
With Cristiano Ronaldo it feels as if he is starting to damage his legacy and damage the hopes of a team that should be good enough to be a serious challenger at this World Cup
It’s strange how it feels the opposite with Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo. I love the Portugal side. How can you not love a team that boasts Nuno Mendes, Bruno Fernandes, Vitinha, Joao Neves and Bernardo Silva? But it is hard to escape the conclusion Roberto Martinez, the manager, is sabotaging a great side by insisting on picking a player long past his sell-by date.
Everybody respects Ronaldo for what he once was and it was hard not to be happy for him when he scored twice against Uzbekistan. But he is clearly struggling at this level now to a point where it feels as if he is starting to damage his legacy and damage the hopes of a team that should be good enough to be a serious challenger at this World Cup.
Messi? Well, he still bestrides the world like a colossus. He is still the personification of footballing beauty. Now that every game might be his last, it is time to savour his every kick.
PRINCESS OF WALES IS A TRUE INSPIRATION
Some years ago, I drove my elder daughter and some of her friends from Ben Nevis to Scafell Pike to Mount Snowdon as they took on and completed the Three Peaks Challenge.
I didn’t climb the mountains myself. I slept while they hiked and then drove to the next peak when they returned. But I saw at first-hand how exhausting it was for a group of students and I was in awe of their achievement.
So when I saw that Catherine, the Princess of Wales, had climbed all three mountains within 24 hours recently to raise funds for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, I was filled with admiration.
Sport takes many forms and what she did to prove something to herself after being treated for cancer a couple of years ago was an inspiration to me and, I’m sure, to many others.
BLURRED FACES AND CANCELLED FLIGHTS ARE THE LOSERS’ LOT
KBS, a South Korea news channel, blurred the face of head coach Hong Myung-bo in their coverage after their defeat to South Africa eliminated them from the World Cup.
A South Korea news channel blurred the face of head coach Hong Myung-bo in their coverage after their country’s World Cup elimination
The Uruguay football federation cancelled the charter jet bringing the players’ home and told them to make their own arrangements to get back.
In England, we are no strangers to extreme reactions to defeat in football. It seems we have more reminders that we are not alone.
