Hiding To Nothing

Football fans are very big on using the exploits of past idols as a benchmark for success. Not for us to accept the individual brilliance of current players, for they are but new kids on the block until they fill the bigger boots of those who preceded them. Bollocks to that I say, but I sometimes wonder if mine is but a voice in the wilderness.

Take Lionel Messi. ‘Leo’ HAS to be the new Maradona. People INSIST on it, BAY for it as if they’re lusting after his blood. And to become the new Maradona, he has to win the World Cup. If Messi is not the new Maradona, then something’s wrong with him.

How things change! I recall everyone dissing Maradona as we did Paul Gascoigne, with not a single club wanting El Diego on board after his unruly spell at Barcelona. No one was making Pele comparisons back then, I can assure you. Then Napoli took a punt on him, and after El Diego’s miracles with them he was briefly white hot property again. At least until his Argentina knocked Italy out of World Cup 1990, and then the resentment towards him across Italy (except of course, in Napoli) grew like an avalanche.

As they say: hindsight is a great thing. And strangely enough, half the people who wanted Maradona dead during his career have now donned the rose-tinted glasses. Suddenly we’re all apologists and admirers who shake our head and go ‘why of course he was the best ever’, mainly because there’s less footage available of Pele’s brilliance. Personally I don’t care about these ‘who was the best?’ comparisons, which ignore the complexity of the game's dynamics. I find them both odious and tedious, a bit like children in the playground squabbling over which daddy has the nicest car.

 

I thought it was set in stone that Messi couldn’t perform on the international stage. So I was impressed by his match-winning displays in Brazil, in which he dragged the Argies almost single-handedly to their first final in close to 25 years. He then missed a sitter against the Germans, and now we’re all shaking our heads in disappointment moaning that ‘he’s not Maradona’.

 

 

 

What if Messi doesn’t want to be Maradona?! Maybe Messi looks at Maradona and restrains a shudder thinking, ‘why on earth am I expected to be this grinning dwarf who looks like a cross between a second hand car dealer and a chubby mom from a slum?’ But he can’t say that in public that can he? Of course bloody not! The Argies even have a church dedicated to Maradona for Christ’s sake(?)! Don’t get me wrong, I love Maradona because of the sheer genius that was sewn to the little gem’s shadow, but I just can’t stand this baiting of Messi anymore.

Messi is just a boy who enjoyed his football, and suddenly found himself the best striker in the world. In his own words:

“I never think about the play or visualize anything. I do what comes to me at that moment. Instinct. It has always been that way”

Everything about him hints at the accidental hero. He has a cast that’s almost mousey, and seems constantly embarrassed and hangs his head when he talks. You can tell that he really couldn’t give a damn about all the adulation, although I’m sure he doesn’t mind the money. But you’ll never see Messi grinning more broadly than in private shots of him with his family and / or friends, which I think is telling.

Why is it that we are so desperate for cycles to repeat themselves in the exact same manner? Maybe it’s because we’re all fundamentally insecure? But this smacks of boredom! And unnecessary mental burdens which hamper the current crop. Maybe it's these constant comparisons which led Messi to fluff his golden chance in the final! Maybe for a split second there he thought ‘now what would bloody Diego have done…s**t missed it!’

I’ll bet that if he'd tucked that ball away and won the World Cup for Argentina, a new bandwagon of comparison would have started rolling down the street, full of naysayers jumping up and down on it shouting: ‘until he wins a league with a crap side like Napoli he cannot be El Die!’ Or some other hare-brained comment like: 'ok so now the Maradona benchmark has been met by Messi, but can he exceed it and become the best ever?' The poor guy is simply on a hiding to nothing, just because he was born in Argentina, wears number 10 and is good at football.

In any event, Messi has at least one more tournament in which to win the cup, and match Maradona’s exploits at international level. Because at club level, people should need no reminder that Messi’s collection of medals totally dwarfs El Diego’s haul. I know that medals and awards don’t necessarily reflect the quality of the player, but I think it is worth pointing them out because it’s quite simply annoying that the greatest striker of our time is constantly beaten up because of a predecessor who is part of World Cup folklore.
 

 

 

As long as I’ve drawn breath, everyone’s gone on and on about the new Maradona, as if he’s the new Messiah come to relieve us from our daily boredom and transport us into a better world. Even though we were quick to dismiss Maradona during his playing days because of his off (and on) the field antics, just like everyone (except new Barca manager Luis Enrique) dismisses Suarez now, despite his undoubted brilliance.

Throughout the years the list of pretenders has been endless. We've had Ariel Ortega, Riquelme, Saviola, D'Alessandro - not to mention Tevez – and so many others that I’ve forgotten them now. Every half decent striker and offensive midfielder cursed to be born in Argentina cops it. They HAVE to be the new Maradona.

But if their side comes up short at the World Cup, then their whole career is flushed down the lavvy and they are perceived as another ‘false dawn’. But the new Maradona Messiah will come, trust me! Look at Messi! He even scored against a poor La Liga side in the same way that El Diego did against England in ‘86! Aren't the stars aligned? Hasn't the reincarnation taken place? Isn't the prophecy now set to be fulfilled? And yah-dee-yah-dee-dah.

We always seem to build up our football heroes and then tear them down, for whatever daft reason. But we inevitably always miss them once they’ve hung up their boots, just like we missed Maradona when he was gone, after years spent raising our eyebrows at the mere mention of his name. Perhaps we should just be thankful that Messi was such a riveting presence at the last World Cup, desperate to lead his side into the breach even if it meant throwing up from fatigue (as he did in the final).

At the end of the day, I'm sure Messi couldn’t care less about these comparisons, so long as he’s left everything on the pitch. After all, he has his own personal objectives to reach, regardless of gossip or silverware. Messi is great because he is Messi. A down to earth kid who loves to play football, who once shrugged his shoulders and said:

“I'm more worried about being a good person than being the best football player in the world. When all this is over, what are you left with? When I retire, I hope I am remembered for being a decent guy” 

A decent guy who will perhaps remain the greatest paradox of all: a phenomenal player with a trophy-laden career, who just could not win.