On June 24, 2012, exactly 8 years ago, Pirlo created a masterpiece: Cucchiaio against Joe Hart, contributing to Italy's victory over England in the penalty shootout. Later, people still mentioned Pirlo as an artisan of world football and that goal was a masterpiece.
Also on June 24, but in 1987, Ms. Celia Maria Cuccittini scored an even better "goal". At Italiano Garibaldi Hospital (Argentina) exactly 33 years ago, the boy Lionel Messi was born. At that time, no one would dare to think that this person would be a legend of world football. So that 33 years later, Messi will become an indispensable part of Barcelona and the entire world...
And in the early morning of June 24, 2020, celebrating his birthday, M10 created an assist for Rakitic to score the only goal to help the "Ctalan giants" rise to the top of La Liga.
This was also Messi's 250th assist for Barca, along with 629 other goals. All of these have come in just 722 appearances in all competitions. It is an unbelievable statistic. In contemporary football, only Ronaldo can put Messi on par in stature. But for the majority of Barca, the Argentine superstar is the only one.
Messi is not Catalan but Messi always has Barca and Catalan in his heart, fans here also always love M10. At the age of 13, this striker joined La Masia training center, made his debut for the first team at the age of 17 and has since always been a " precious gem" of Barcelona.
After many changes, his seniors and teammates of the same age such as Xavi, Iniesta, Fabregas have gradually moved on or retired. Pique went and returned, only Messi remained there and devoted himself to the Catalan team. This season, the Argentine superstar has scored 26 goals and had 19 assists in just 35 matches.
In the transition period, when Luis Suarez was old, the young Ansu Fati, Carles Perez and Griezmann and Dembele were just disappointments. Messi is still here and is the source of life for Barca.
Messi is still loyal to Barcelona. Unfortunately, that is something he could not have in his home country of Argentina. Messi once left the national team after a failed performance at the 2018 World Cup, fans asked him to return but he did not respond. Ninety months later, the M10 quietly returned, but the Argentines had enough reason to hate him.
Today, Messi turned 33 years old but he only has the 2008 Beijing Olympic Gold Medal, the only title for his hometown. He missed the 2014 World Cup when Argentina lost 0-1 to Germany in the final. In the biggest arena in South America, Messi also played in the final 3 times (2007, 2015 and 2016) but all lost to Brazil or Chile.
Failure is a collective, but Messi is always the focus of criticism. The simple reason is that he is one of the best stars that the football village has ever produced, Argentina has him but still cannot win.
Looking at the Argentina squad, the problem is not much different from Barca. Aguero, Di Maria, Otamendi are all past their prime, Lautaro Martinez, Lo Celso, Paulo Dybala are not enough to form a strong Albiceleste team. Perhaps, the day Messi is served is still far away.
At the age of 33, Messi is likely to play his final World Cup in Qatar for 3 years after turning 35. As for the regional arena, Copa America 2020 should have been a good opportunity for M10 to play with the most energy.
But now that he has moved to 2021, Messi's form is still a big question mark...
