Macaya Márquez, legend from 17 World Cups: “Messi doesn’t need to be champion in Qatar 2022 to recognize his merits”

It’s a legend, as simple as that.

And winking at fate, he turned 88 on the same day the World Cup began, the uninterrupted number 17 who is commenting and which makes it a global journalistic record. Since that kid got on a BC-7 plane that “stopped everywhere to refuel” and which, he now says, “just got there,” there’s been quite a bit of football. That’s what this unmissable speech is about.

-Who was Enrique Macaya Márquez when he went to his first World Cup?

-We’re talking about 1958. I was an employee of El Mundo radio and I went to the World Cup on Belgrano radio, the competition, curiously. He was a minor employee, not to say cadet, of the management in the commercial part.

-And what dreams did you have?

-Nothing, covering a World Cup, taking part in a sporting event of that magnitude. I didn’t even think about what could happen next.

-After so many years of experience, what do you think a good football commentator should have?

-A good commentator must know and then be able to communicate what he knows, therefore he must know the technology, know the game and interpret it accordingly. It’s not easy and you have to constantly learn from those who know best, constantly discuss and challenge those who know best. It is the only way to be able to grow and according to that growth to be able to overturn it through the best possible means.

-Let’s talk about your tastes: what was the best team you’ve seen?

-The performance of the teams is closely linked to success, obviously the Argentina national team of ’78 and ’86 has to do with winning a World Cup, which is very important, but the best team I’ve seen was the Netherlands of 74.

-Because?

-Because I managed the relays as I like, for the high technical condition and for the capacity the players had in terms of skill, for their constant mobility, for their physical response, i.e. somehow they represented total football who then called himself and they represented him very well, I liked him a lot, they had high quality players, the case of Johan Cruyff. They played with the ball, great technique, they played with space, great vision and a lot of intelligence. Football is not just playing with the ball, football is also playing with space and playing with ideas.

-And the best player?

-I choose Di Stéfano, who hasn’t played in the World Cup. Then there are several: Pelé is one of them, Maradona… They have set very important milestones in their direct contribution to the teams with their individual performances. That’s why we need to talk about Cruyff, Pele, Maradona, now we need to talk about Messi who is getting closer.

-Where is Messi in history?

-Messi is settling down to share the table with these colleagues who had, above all, a very marked leadership. And Messi was somewhat the victim of the whim of his opponents, and when I say whim I mean that they hit him, pushed him, knocked him out, and now it’s not that easy. Now Messi has become, by choice of his own companions, funny this, the leader of the Argentine team.

– Do you have to be world champion?

No, he doesn’t need anything for me. Pretending that a player is a world champion to recognize his merits seems unfair to me.

-Where do you put it among the best?

-You can’t put a certain level, they are personal appreciations. There have been games where it was crucial, that it was not only the rarest, most exotic piece, but also the most valuable and other times it went unnoticed. They are characteristics of each of the players. There are some that I liked the most, I named them: Maradona, Di Stéfano, Pelé, Cruyff and now Messi joins this table.

-What was the biggest disappointment you suffered in the 17 World Cups?

– I play a bit seriously and a bit jokingly, the biggest disappointment as a journalist and as an Argentinian, because we looked back and thought we were superior, was in Sweden in 1958. When six goals were missed I couldn’t help it believe it, I started smoking again after three years of quitting… Why? Because it was something inexplicable, like a Czechoslovakian team would score six goals against the Argentines because we didn’t know what they played, how they played, where they lived… We weren’t communicating. There I began to learn the hard lessons that must be taken in order to go to a World Cup.

-And if you have to choose a technician…

-It’s unfair, because I don’t know the skills of the technicians of the other teams. I have a much closer picture of the Argentinian coaches, of which I was closest to Bilardo because I saw him work a lot, because I had the opportunity to work alongside Bilardo’s players and I knew what he was teaching them, what is was the answer he was looking for… And from Menotti’s side, because I’m talking about two champions, in terms of looking for players throughout the Republic of Argentina because they had an idea of ​​how to play but they had to find the protagonists so that this idea could be could specify. And they looked for him and they found him.

-You’ve never been too involved in the Bilardo-Menotti controversy…

-I didn’t get involved because it was known that I didn’t say more billiardist than billiardist but that I had more access to billiardism. I had a much more direct relationship, probably because I was interested in Bilardo’s way of working and because I had already known him as a player and as a coach at Estudiantes.

the chat with clarion It ends and the great Macaya continues to receive tributes, FIFA joins Conmebol and one of its journalists, an Englishman, wants an opinion on the 1986 match. Enrique becomes more serious. “I don’t like it, what is not legal and regulatory seems wrong to me. A goal in hand is liveliness, a prank that doesn’t match, it’s unfair, I didn’t like it. The hand of God is the hand of the devil”.

Macaya Márquez, beyond good and evil.