“What are you looking at, idiot”: what would you have done or said in Lionel Messi’s place?

Lionel Messi He was the best player in the world for almost 20 years. Lionel Messi is also one of the best players in this Qatar World Cup 2022. Lionel Messi, as we know, has a profile inversely proportional to that of celebrities of his caliber. Subway.

Throughout his career, the number of outbursts he has committed can be counted on the fingers of one hand. It is difficult to remember them because they are few. Very few. Almost none. Why doesn’t he resort to bravado? because you don’t need it. Because he talks with the ball at his feet and he has plenty of it. Highlights of his performances here in and around Doha are worth seeing. Only Kylian Mbappé, 12 years younger, has done similar things at the gates of the desert. The rest of the figures from this World Cup have not yet finished exploding or have already returned home.

Having said that, one question: is it necessary to dwell on some of his behavior during the match against the Netherlands? If you know it isn’t. If you know that in 99% of his career he is a 10 in correction.

It is impossible because we cannot enter Messi’s body or psyche. We are all different. But can you contextualize or try to contextualize the things this 35-year-old man is going through, who is trying, perhaps for the last time, to get the only title what is missing from his splendid career.

It is true that it is sport and there is nothing that is life and death. You have to try to play down, as he repeats Lionel Scaloni, the driver of the team. But you also have to understand that Messi has been preparing his whole life to win a World Cup. And the pressure he must feel to succeed, after all the chances that have eluded him since 2006, must weigh on him.

So much has been said and written about him, unfairly, that he lacked the ability to cope with adverse scenarios and now that he puts his chest to bullets He is accused of behavior bordering on bad taste. At the very least, an exaggeration.

And this is not said because he is on his football honeymoon, with a team like La Scaloneta, which is two steps away from achieving what has long been unattainable. The same will be said whatever happens with Croatia. With enemies who seem free to say something barbaric and even ignore you, as did Louis Van Gaal himself, the wise DT of the Netherlands, it’s hard not to fight back.

They are professionals, it is true. They are also idols of the crowd. They must be and appear. Everything is true. But that temperance, at times, is impossible to handle with a thousand beats. Would you not react if you molested a sibling or friend? Won’t you throw a bitch if they mistreat you? Wouldn’t you get out of line if they ignored you and said nasty things about you? Wouldn’t you walk away if, with much lower stakes, you were tied in a game at the last minute off? It’s worth thinking about. And it would also be good to reflect: And why does Messi have to react like a gentleman all his life? Can’t he have human reactions?

If Messi is after all a 35-year-old man who has many problems solved, but who also has many responsibilities greater than many of those who go around this world.

It’s always easy put the magnifying glass on in the behavior of others when we sometimes fail to realize that, on a much smaller scale and with no one watching, we do worse things at our job or even at a pastured football game.

Could Messi have avoided the “what are you looking at, stupid” that has become a universal meme? Probably yes. Or not. What I know? What would we have done in the same situation with someone who was bothering you just before? This is a good question. Maybe we’ll come up with an interesting answer before we talk without thinking.

Doha, Qatar. Special delivery.