Messi of FC Barcelona and Messi of Argentina – The difference

Messi of Barcelona and Messi of Argentina – The difference

Messi at Barcelona is glorified and held in the highest esteem. In his 10 years at Barca, he had raked up an incredible 31 titles, 5 Ballon dOrs, 5 Golden shoes and much more. He is considered the best in the world by many all over the world. But in Argentina, he is always lesser than their golden boy Maradona. He never performs well enough and he is perpetually criticised and blamed for their loses at the World Cup and Copa America. So what is the difference between the Messi of Barca and the Messi of Argentina.

Messi grew up at La Masia in Barcelona playing with a number of his teammates from the age of 13. His mates at Barcelona openly acknowledge him as a genius and look to give him the ball because they know he would find a way out. The players at Barca are not some X, Y. Zs. They are some of the best in the business and they all appreciate Messi. They understand his style of play and adapt to maximize his talents. Similarly Messi adapts according to the need of the team and the type of players that he plays with, every season. The coaches at Barcelona look to maximize the individual talents by strategically bringing in the best combinations. At Barcelona the team always comes first.

Now let’s look at Argentina. It’s made up of a number of X, Y Zs who have no international experience and are inferior products of a very corrupt system. It also has an equal number of stars who have huge egos and want to prove themselves as the best of the lot. They play as per their wish and don’t stick to any plan. Here every individual comes first. Ironically some of the most successful coaches in European clubs are Argentines.  But when they become the coach of team Argentina they are rendered helpless and generally have a brain freeze during tough situations.

When opposition teams mark Messi heavily, he drops deep to get the ball and supply it to the midfield or the forwards. At Barca, players keep a constant eye on him as he would sedately track back distributing the ball to them. At the same time strikers are always expecting long, inch perfect passes and move forward accordingly. Every player anticipates the next move based on his runs. Many also know that for a move that he starts, he would also be ready to end it. There are always options at Barca when Messi is shackled. 

At Argentina, amazingly they tend to avoid giving the ball to Messi. They don’t follow him and continue to mess up with aimless and wasteful passing. While this makes his tracking back completely useless, Messi is totally isolated upfront, with the opposition surrounding him like a wall. Argentina successfully manages to render the most lethal striker in the world totally useless, with no service to him anywhere near the penalty area. They are so empty headed that no one makes use of the spaces created by 4-5 defenders constantly surrounding Messi, when he moves forward. To add to his misery, the coach in charge makes some of the most ridiculous choice of players who have the least impact against a particular opposition.

There is a common accusation that Messi is not a leader. Well Messi is never vociferous and does not overreact. All he wants is to get the ball and play. At Barcelona and all over the world he is considered a role model and loved for his humble and quiet nature, In Argentina they actually appreciate players who exaggerate, initmidate, argue and talk a lot of trash which according to them is what a leader does (LOL).  

At Barca he had grown from the enthusiastic kid to a natural yet unassuming leader. He is now their first Captain. Along with the other seniors he had patiently helped many new and young players blend into the Barca system of play. He & the rest were instrumental in helping Luis Suarez, Neymar and Rakitic succeed at Barca. He played a huge part to get the talented Sergi Roberto, Countinho, Semedo, and Dembele integrated into the team. But this was possible because these young players were willing learners and put in a lot of effort to try and adapt as per the team’s needs. In Argentina, every new player who comes in, has the air of a superstar. Talented, young players like Dybala who are stars in their own right, look to replace Messi rather than play with him.

At Barcelona everyone revels in the team’s success. They come together to celebrate each one’s goal in the warmest manner. Everyone is happy for each other and everyone is appreciated. In Argentina there is a constant competition, within, to prove that each one is better than the rest. It brings in an insecure and totally chaotic atmosphere. Rarely would you find the team celebrating a person’s achievement with enthusiasm, except for Messi.

The pressure to preform is always immense on Messi. There is huge expectation from Messi at both Barcelona and Argentina, because of what he is capable of and what he has achieved. While Barcelona compliments his genius, Argentina just sits back and waits from him to do everything, which he had done on numerous instances, Instead of appreciating his brilliance, his misses and rare bad days are always blown out of proportion. After a setback, team Barcelona tries to learn from their mistakes and move forward. Argentina neither looks into nor rectifies the causes of their team's failures. They ignore the pathetic management and take the easy way out by only targeting Messi.

Messi is Barcelona’s talisman and Barcelona is Messi’s den. Argentina is Messi’s national team and his heart beats for them. Messi's success at Barcelona, sadly, irks the Argentines who believe that he does not put in as much effort for his national team as he does for Barca.  Maradona is deservedly considered greater by most Argentines because he won them the World Cup. But what the critics conveniently forget is that despite all the individual brilliance of Diego, he had a solid support cast who always helped him do well with their unselfish play. For Messi, at Barcelona, its 11 versus 11 and at Argentina, its 1+ 10 dummies versus 11. 

Traditionally team Argentina is more about individual brilliance. So like Maradona, Messi is considered their only salvation. He cannot afford to falter and is expected to play like he does at Barcelona, but with a totally invalid team. While he does try to live up to these incredible and totally unjustified expectations of his home supporters, humanly it’s not always possible.

At Barca, though players have bad days, it’s usually the team that takes the blame and sticks together. When Messi errs, it’s just another day. In Argentina, when Messi errs it’s the end of the world and the uproars begin. Argentina crucifies Messi for the team’s failures because he is supposed to be superhuman and help their pathetic and selfish team wade through all situations. The likes of Rojo, Higuain and Di Maria continue to flop but no one bothers to question why they are still part of the team, Coaches never get their line-ups right and yet it's Messi who is made the scapegoat.

Going by my opinion many may think everything is awesome at FC Barcelona - No it is not. Barcelona's management have been faltering in recent years. With their aging golden generation, including Messi, they need to rebuild a new team. But the current management lacks vision and has bought many new players without any clear plan as to how they will fit in. The team currently is a chaotic mix of mismatches and veterans. All these have put additional pressure and workload on Messi who along with the rest have been carrying on with all their might. During this transition process, there is an over dependence on Messi. He had carried this huge weight admirably thanks to his team mates and coaching staff. But the main thing about the FC Barcelona Management is that their actions are always under the scrutiny of the public and the media that keeps them on their toes. 
The corrupt Argentina Football Management who are behind the failure of the Argentine Football’s youth system have no plan for the present or future. They are simply sitting back and making money using the international appeal and fan following of Messi. No one in Argentina, especially the media,  really bothers about the actual problem. 

For a more detailed article on this please check out the link below: 
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup/argentina-world-cup-2018-lionel-messi-jorge-sampaoli-julio-grondona-a8426061.html.

Argentina with Messi, despite all the drawbacks, were the winners of the Under 20 World Cup in 2005, Olympic Gold Medal Winners in 2008, 2014 World Cup finalists, finalists in the Copa America in 2007, 2015 and 2016 and he literally hauled them into the 2018 World Cup. His retirement from International Football after the 2016 Copa America finals loss shocked fans around the world, including Argentina. But the same people who blamed him begged him to comeback after Argentina’s miserable run in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers. He heeded and came back to drag them into the World Cup. Despite the woeful team that Argentina had, the country expected their team to come good in the 2018 World Cup which was totally unfair and unrealistic. It was a disaster and they tumbled out of the World Cup in the pre-quarters. Despite the shambolic team performance, Messi is blamed for their early ouster from the tournament. Sadly for Messi his dream to lift the World Cup for his beloved nation remains an unfulfilled dream.

Finally - there is no difference in Messi. He is the same player for both the teams, always willing to give his 100% and more. The difference is Barcelona and Argentina. At Barca, Leo is their king and talisman. While every other team aspires to have a player like Lionel Messi, Argentina does not appreciate what they have. Unlike Barcelona, Argentina will realize the value of what they had, only after he had left them for good.

Image Credits - Google Images