World Cup: Day 27
Well, there was a really good football match yesterday! And also another one. And then there’s nothing today, which means I should really be relaxing.
Now let’s talk Argentina.
Argentina 3-2 Egypt
When the Argentine public struggled to totally warm to Lionel Messi early in his career, they didn’t need him to win the World Cup.
“The world's best footballer is an Argentinian who, in his own country, has [fewer] fans than a referee”, according to Argentine newspaper La Nación in 2010. "All the players have fans in Argentina, except Messi, who left when he was 13 to pursue the footballing dream which he could not fulfil in his country. Gonzalo Higuaín was born in Brest, but no Argentinian fan would think of calling him 'The Frenchman', as they do with Messi when they provocatively call him 'The Catalan'“.
And what, you might wonder, did La Nación say of him after Argentina’s 3-2 win over Egypt?
“Those tears did not stop rolling down the cheeks of the great captain”, the paper wrote (translated by Google Translate, so apologies if it’s inaccurate). “They symbolised the suffering of the whole country, the relief of their companions. The joy of the best of ours. And if he’s happy, we all are.
“We all grew up with him. We’re all excited about him. We all cry with him.”
They didn’t need him to win. They didn’t need him to score goals.
They needed him to suffer.
They needed him to hurt when they were hurting. They needed to know he was mortal. They needed to know how much it meant to him. They needed to see that he was one of them.
Every time he’s had to struggle and fight in a white and sky blue shirt, he’s shown them that.