Don’t give Messi the Ballon d’Or anymore, give him the Oscar

Dear gentlemen of FIFA, UEFA and France Football. Stop giving him Golden Balls and golden ankle boots or loafers decorated with fine rubies. Gentlemen of the Academy, give him the Oscar once and for all. Lionel Messi is no longer a footballer, he is the best actor in the world. The one that he always plays in the same movie and ends up being the boy who gets the girl. Or the soldier who takes the hill from the Nazis. Or the Marlowe who uncovers a crime. What would this life be like without Messi?

Messi ensures a full box office. Yesterday was the game with the most spectators in the World Cup, almost 90,000 people went to Lusail, they didn’t go to see the game, they went to see Leo. Never die. I continued, even if you no longer have that short pike, that unstoppable fast dribble. You still have a lot of rope. The others are normal, human, mortal.

Argentina won thanks to Messi’s goal but didn’t win thanks to Messi. He won because he had other virtues. Patience, temperament, he knew how to suffer and fight like a dog when Mexico offered friction and shock. In that troubled river of the first half, the Selection was intelligent. He came out of that vortex as one emerges from vortexes. Stand still. If you fight, it swallows you. sinks you and kills you.

That patience in enduring bad passes has given him time to rebuild the lines, to look for alternatives to the obvious lack of play that this team continues to suffer. Le+o Scaloni that first part and moved pieces. He read the second phase better when he made the changes which he did also running the risk of running out of opportunities to make other changes in the last minutes in case someone got injured. Taking risks is also a virtue.

Messi was the Bogart of this selection. But he didn’t star alone in that thriller. Enzo Fernández seems to be the Héctor Enrique of this Selection. And he also marked with his goal the second goal that Argentina conceded in the opening match against the Saudis.

There are risks. The enthusiasm for the 2-0 draws special fuel for the supporters of those who believe Argentina will be world champions on the trot. There is no way. He will suffer. And a lot, in every game, even if yesterday there was a remarkable growth. For example, in the people in the background: Otamendi and Lisandro, then Romero when that row of three was put together.

There is nothing done. Poland missing. It’s better to beat him so as not to cross France in the round of 16, who already have the ticket and possibly the first place in their possession.

Step by step. Left footed shot by Messi. Until the legend The End appears.