Mark Twain once said that the two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.
But I would add a third: the day I met Lionel Messi.
It was a sticky, humid and thunderstorm-ridden day in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, back in the summer of 2023, which was Messi’s arrival for Inter Miami. The night before the Leagues Cup final, which would eventually become Leo’s first trophy with the club, and his 44th career title, which would become a record.
(Photo by Koji Watanabe/Getty Images)
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But I was inside one of the suites at Inter Miami’s former stadium, waiting for an exclusive interview with a player I had covered — and, just like any other mortal, marveled at throughout my life and career.
As a football journalist, the values of objectivity are imperative foundations of our work, and it’s important to never get carried away when you meet someone you admire tremendously. It also goes back to the well-known saying that you “should never meet your heroes,” some words of wisdom that were said from one legendary icon (John Lennon) to another (Mick Jagger). But I actually attribute this piece of advice more to lines from Gustave Flaubert’s 1856 novel, “Madame Bovary,” which read: “Don’t touch your idols: a little gold always rubs off.”
But with Messi, the gold never does.
(Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images)
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And to me, in order to be a true serviceman of the sport as a journalist, you can’t just report on the beautiful game, you have to feel it. You have to live inside the skin of what it means to be a supporter, because they are the heart, the flesh and bones of a club or a national team. So to meet Messi is to represent what it would mean to any Argentinian who would give their right arm to do the same. You owe it to them.
THE CONVERSATION BETWEEN Messi and me was about him and his family’s happiness, now finally in Miami after leaving Paris Saint-Germain, his new life in the United States and the expectations of the next few years. And this was in the summer of 2023, not long after winning the World Cup in Qatar and months before receiving his record eighth Ballon d’Or.
Messi, ever the introvert, was extremely attentive, quiet and thoughtful in his responses. This is a trait you all must know. He’s not shy but rather an internal thinker. But as a kid, it was much worse in school. When he wanted to ask a teacher a question, he would need his best friend to do it for him. During his trial at Barcelona when he was 13, established stars — like Gerard Piqué and Cesc Fàbregas, from the famed ‘87 generation — remember Messi would not speak nor ask any questions.
But he didn’t need to as they learned that everything he needed to say would be on the pitch.
Back to my encounter with Messi: I remember one point when I asked him how successful the U.S. and MLS can be when it comes to competing with the likes of Europe. His reply? “Their success is up to them.”
And the reason why I bring that up is because it’s that type of mindset that fully encapsulates Messi, as he has always been a person who truly believes that the rewards of triumph and prosperity are only dictated by one motivating factor: himself.
The mural on Messi’s childhood home. (Photo by MARCELO MANERA / AFP via Getty Images)
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Messi grew up in Rosario, about 170 miles northwest of Buenos Aires. It is the city where the Argentinian flag was first raised during the War of Independence in 1812.
Messi lived in a humble neighborhood called La Bajada, in a house built by his father and grandfather. He would play in the streets until sunset and would continuously kick the ball on the same spot of the neighbors’ wall in order to get his angle perfectly right.
When he played for Newell’s Old Boys, his first trip away from Argentina was to Perú and the night before the big tournament, he ate some chicken that didn’t agree with him. The next morning, the head coach was worried and wanted to take him to hospital. Messi argued and said all he needed was Gatorade. He drank it, played in the tournament and single-handedly led the team to win the entire tournament.
Messi, center, with his boyhood club in Rosario. (Photo by Marcelo Manera / AFP via Getty Images)
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DESPITE ALL THE admiration, the stardom and attention, however — along with the fact that he is a World Cup winner, a four-time Champions League champion and has won more individual trophies than anyone in the history of the sport — Messi remains that little boy who needed growth hormones in order to keep up with his peers. Throughout his life, he was overlooked over and over again, but never ever ran away from the eternal sentiment that destiny is something you determine.
And that’s why he is the greatest ever. His is a journey of determination and will, mixed with the fact that what he does on the pitch is almost beyond belief.
From his solo “Ankara Messi” goal for Barcelona against Getafe in 2007 — mirroring Diego Maradona’s own piece of art in the 1986 World Cup against England — to my favorite (his golazo at the 2018 World Cup against Nigeria), Messi has given us countless moments of magic.
But again, it begins with steel-minded determination.
The 2022 World Cup in Qatar, for example, started with a shocking loss to Saudi Arabia. But Messi used this as a catapult to explode into greatness with Argentina and win every match from that moment, including the electrifying final against France.
Amidst adversity, Messi — just like his real-life persona — is actually very calm. Sure, you will often see emotion and dispute on the pitch, but in terms of objectives and knowing what you have to do in order to win, he is completely at peace.
“We couldn’t be upset because we knew he was calm,” said his former teammate Ángel Di María, speaking about that 2022 World Cup opening loss to Saudi Arabia. “Why should I feel bad when the greatest [player] in history, our captain, is completely calm and is sending a message to 45 million Argentinians that this group won’t let them down?”
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And they didn’t.
And so when we fast-forward to the present and look ahead to Sunday’s World Cup final between Argentina and Spain at New York New Jersey Stadium, I can’t help but feel extremely emotional about the fact that this is Leo’s curtain call at the World Cup. There is a sadness that inhabits me because I just know that after tomorrow, regardless of the score, Lionel Messi will never grace us on the grandest of stages ever again.
Sure, anything can happen, and Messi could U-turn and remain committed to the fact that, as a 43-year-old superstar, he’ll grace us with playing in 2030. Nothing is impossible, and if anyone can do it, it’s him.
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But this is more wishful thinking than anything else. The harsh reality is that Sunday’s final will be the last time Messi urges his team with a speech akin to Henry V’s Shakespearian prose: “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more…”
Let me change that sentiment as it’s probably not the greatest idea to give the greatest living Argentinian a quote from the most renowned English playwright. Allow me to focus instead of the timeless words from Buenos Aires-born Jorge Luis Borges, one of the most influential writers and poets of Spanish literature.
“For me, beauty is a physical sensation, something we feel with our whole body. It is not the result of judgment. We do not arrive at it by way of rules. We either feel beauty or we don’t.”
That’s how I feel about Lionel Messi. Words are not enough. Neither is narration. Or even a highlight.
(Photo by Luis ROBAYO / AFP via Getty Images)
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MESSI’S GENIUS MUST be felt, without restrictions or doubt. Because when he enters the pitch and dances with the ball, time stops. It moves ever so fast for everyone else, but for him, it is calm. Messi changes direction just like a lightning strike, resisting and constantly avoiding pockets of air. He doesn’t just create moments of wonder, he leaves dust on the pitch only for an opponent to chase a shadow he never knew existed.
Messi has always been about deceiving reality. He has been doing this since he was five years old, when he first entered a pitch under the illusion of an older child, as his beloved late grandmother lied to the coach and told him he was older than what he appeared.
After that, he never looked back and the football world would never be the same again.
(Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
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Sunday’s fixture is against a team he sort of helped build as Lamine Yamal’s trajectory, and the numerous graduates of La Masia, are a result of the unwanted situation that happened in 2021 when Messi had to leave his beloved Barcelona.
But that tale has been told. This match on Sunday is about Argentina and Spain — two Spanish-speaking nations facing each other in the land of immigrants. Right next to the stadium is the second-largest mall in the United States, the American Dream. This is the perfect way to parallel the final, as it is indeed a match that represents this ethos — the ultimate search of happiness through hard work and perseverance, regardless of background.
Messi with his three sons. (Photo by German Adrasti/Getty Images)
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Messi, like me, is a two-time immigrant. And like me, one who left South America for Europe and eventually the United States. So I empathize and weirdly connect to his journey, one that could come with even more history as he looks to win back-to-back World Cup titles for Argentina. Something only done twice in the tournament’s history.
History awaits. And so does the sadness of one final battle, one final piece of poetry to be written.
All of us will take it all in with the enduring, albeit failing, hope that time stays frozen.
But we know this won’t happen. All we can do is stand up at the end of the match, and regardless of score, applaud at genius, shed a tear and thank the football gods that throughout their endeavors, they gave us the miracle of Lionel Messi.
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