World Cups appear destined to make Messi seem mortal

It has to end soon. The futuristic city of Lusail might be the place where Lionel Messi’s near impossible pursuit of Diego Maradona’s World Cup achievements finally falters.

Defeat to Mexico at the World Cup final venue on Saturday night would shatter the 35-year old’s longest obsession, easing Messi closer to Ariel Ortega, Pablo Aimar and Juan Román Riquelme – lesser number 10s who failed to fill the void left by El Barrilete Cosmico (the cosmic kite), who passed away two years ago this weekend.

A cruel sporting irony stole Messi’s best chance of replicating Maradona’s masterpiece at Mexico ‘86, in that was ruined by Maradona’s ineptitude as Argentina manger.

“2010 was a mad show,” says Jimmy Burns, unofficial biographer for both men. “I call it the telenovela of Maradona and Messi. To have them in the same World Cup, Maradona as manager with Messi in his team, was a very good story.

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“But it was a crisis in football terms, a totally dysfunctional team. Say what you like about Diego’s genius but as a manager he ain’t that, despite pulling off some success in a second division Mexico Cup in a region better known for its cocaine.

“Maradona had no sense of strategy and Messi was coming from an experience of club football where Barca were going through glory years with a fantastic supporting cast and he suddenly finds himself in this Argentina team that keeps having to change its formation and has no real sense of identity or cohesion. The results spoke for themselves.”

Maradona was the last rock star footballer; he carried his devils within him, yet he was pretty open about them as well; he shared his humanity in a flawed way that held up a mirror to all of us

—  Jimmy Burns

Germany have ended Messi’s World Cup aspirations on three occasions, also outlasting Maradona in the deeply cynical 1990 final, but 12 years ago the humiliation factor was unquantifiable: the manager clueless as the Cape Town quarter-final finished 4-0.

Jorge Valdano, the ‘86 striker turned football philosopher, says for Maradona the football was a “paint brush,” but to Messi it is a “high precision tool.”

“Maradona was the last rock star footballer; he carried his devils within him, yet he was pretty open about them as well; he shared his humanity in a flawed way that held up a mirror to all of us.”

Messi could be Maradona’s clone, a perfected version of the greatest player that ever lived or, to avoid the never-ending debate, the greatest performer a single World Cup has ever seen.

Hand of God, the title of Burns’s fascinating account of Maradona’s life, comes from that stifling afternoon on June 22nd, 1986 when he altered the course of world football in a mesmerising four minute spell.

Nothing Messi has done, not his sustainability, not the medals gathered alongside Iniesta, Xavi, Busquets, Neymar and Luis Suárez, compares to Maradona’s impactful peak inside the Estadio Azteca.

“That particular match was a hugely dramatic, political and sociological occasion as it was against the backdrop of the Falklands War. Certainty for the Argentinian squad and from the perspective of the English tabloids.

“Diego was the first person in the dressingroom to say this is the great revenge for our poor boys who were humiliated during ‘the Malvinas,’ all to stir up his team-mates. But the ‘Hand of God’ goal, as far as I am concerned, and evidently he cheated, was legendary.

“That said, it is the second goal that endures; the sublime example of Diego’s sheer genius, because it had it all, a sense of gravity, his energy, his determination, his skill.

“I remember Valdano saying ‘in the team, for us, it was like watching a move where we all became observers; this was the moment, and it was just Diego taking on the English.’”

Messi cloned Maradona’s second goal, also taking 11 touches and finishing right-footed, but instead of leaving Peter Beardsley, Peter Reid, Terry Butcher, Terry Fenwick and Peter Shilton flapping in the windless Mexican heat, it was a Copa del Rey semi-final against Getafe.

Messi’s seven World Cup goals, in 20 appearances spanning five tournaments, have all come in the group stages. Four of Maradona’s eight, in 21 appearances spanning four tournaments, were the only Argentina goals in quarter and semi-final victories over England and Belgium.

As much as Maradona’s World Cup experiences were stand-alone epics – teenage rejection by César Menotti in 1978; red carded for planting studs into Brazilian João Batista’s groin in 1982; the flickering majesty to create Claudio Caniggia’s winner versus Brazil in 1990; the eye-popping tragedy of 1994 – they make Messi’s World Cup stories seem paltry.

If the great debate ends on Saturday night, Messi’s peak will have been 2014 when he willed Argentina to the final.

“Messi, since the age of 13, was in a protective family at FC Barcelona, where they kept the external devils away from him. Also, as a character, quite frankly, you just have to hear him speak to know he hasn’t much to say, whereas Diego always broke new frontiers with outrageous comment, from the alleged corruption of Fifa through to hitting out at the past military regimes in Argentina.

“Messi is an apolitical figure.”

It seems impossible that a Messi book could be researched to the same depths as Burns delved into Maradona’s dusty beginnings and dark journey through the Camorra-controlled Naples.

“I got lucky with the Diego book because I got close to him and followed him around. One minute I could be very close to him at a press conference and the next it was a more intimate, decadent circumstance like a restaurant in London before he hit the night.

“Whereas Messi is surrounded by minders, by lawyers, by tax advisers, all sorts of people.”

In 2017 the Spanish courts plea-bargained Messi and his father Jorge’s prison sentences for tax evasion into a €252,000 fine for concealing €4.1 million in image rights earnings.

“I did quite a lot investigations for the dual biography with Cristiano. I went to Rosario and found out about his childhood and talked to a lot of people at Barcelona. What is there is as far as you are going to get but there are no more skeletons in the closet.

“Messi is totally focused on his football and has led a relatively scandal-free life. He is happily partnered with his other half, he has his children. The one scandal that did surround him was his tax affairs when he was put on trial in Spain.”

Maybe, someday, Asif Kapadia will make a cinematic documentary comparable to his pieces on Ayrton Senna, Amy Winehouse and Diego Maradona. At every Messi World Cup, until now, Maradona has loomed over each game, with drug fuelled, made for TV antics that required minders to make sure he did not topple over the rails and into the lower tier.

“You go from all that drama to the tragic comedy of the World Cup in Russia with Diego a commentator for an Argentinian channel, looking bloated, out of his head, a grotesque caricature of himself. And the cameras stayed focused on him. We will miss all that for this World Cup in the desert.”

Maybe this story has been told as much as it can be – a flawed perfectionist thwarted by sterile circumstance and a lack of moxie.

“Messi is not what he was, so it will depend on the rest of the team, but if he does lift the trophy in Qatar it will probably secure his status as the greatest player of all time. That debate will never end but you cannot keep saying he is missing something if he wins the World Cup.

“If he doesn’t, he might be seen as mortal, to Argentineans especially.”