All with Messi: the world of football and Leo’s desire to achieve eternal glory

With his goalscoring eye intact, Gabriel Omar Batistuta noted that “there is something in the air that wants Argentina to become champions, for Messi and for the fans,” he told this newspaper.

And that’s how it is, what you breathe in Doha, right from the start, is that it is Messi’s World Cup. The images, advertisements, T-shirts you see on the street, everything revolves around the Argentine captain. And Leo with his overflowing attitude, with that desire to eat his last World Cup, has repaid all expectations to the max and seems pushed towards the title by a multitude of fans from all over the planet, except the French, which includes journalists and other neutral.

This is the feeling: that the world wants Messi to become champion and is pushing to help him achieve it. We’ll have to wait to find out if that materializes, but the energy is circulating.

The Lad Carlos Valderrama was one of the first foreigners to cover up the matter: “I’m a fan of Argentina because Messi deserves to be champion,” he said clarion before the quarterfinals with the Netherlands. Subsequently, many FIFA legends have spoken in the same direction, including Dutch landmark Clarence Seedorf, one of the victims of Leo’s magic, who told Olé newspaper: “I would like Mbappé to score a goal, Messi to score another goal and Argentina to win 2-1.”

For example, former Brazilian full-back Cafú had no problem confessing: “I love Messi and I want him to win. I have always liked the best players and he is one of them”. German Lothar Matthäus is also generous, a friend of Maradona, despite having been another victim: “I said I liked Messi breaking my record for appearances. Now I want him to do it with the title, he deserved to end his career like this.”

Christian Karembeu, world champion with France in 1998, found a consolation prize for doubts: “If the final is lost, I’ll be happy for Messi.” Jorge Campos, former goalkeeper of Mexico, offered an excellent definition: “Have you seen with a smile that he plays? How does he do what he does and smile like that? No doubt it would be deserved for Messi to win the Cup.”

The Chilean Iván Zamorano said that his wife is Argentinian and that their children have the shirt of Chile and the national team, so his vote seems sung: “I think so you will understand what I think. It will be a very tough match, closed but Messi is the king and Mbappé the prince.

And it is that Messi dissolves antagonisms. After the 3-0 defeat by Croatia, former England forward Gary Lineker tweeted: “There’s still an argument over whether he’s the best of all time?” O Globo journalist Carol Barcellos tells us: “I think so, there are many people who support Argentina for Messi, even in Brazil. We love football and there is a lot of respect and admiration for Messi.”

It is clear that Leo’s brilliant performance in this Cup is rekindling the confrontation with Maradona. After the victory in the semifinals, the Spanish sports newspaper As headlined with a nod to Diego: “Which planet are you from?” Juan Castro, journalist of the newspaper Marca, interviewed by clarionhe thinks so “80% of the world’s football fan is with Messi. In Spain, the Real Madrid fan will be with France, but the anti-Argentinism they sell us that exists in my country is absolutely false.”

In Italy, the Gazzetta dello Sport played with a “MaraMessi” on the cover. Meanwhile Corriere dello Sport has described him as “stratospheric” and one of its special envoys in Qatar, Fabrizio Patania, told this newspaper: “I think football lovers love Messi and want to see him champion. He is on a sublime, spatial level Messi is football.”

Meanwhile Matteo Dotto, a Mediaset journalist, underlined: “In Italy the biggest pique has always been with France, also socially, that’s why the majority are with Messi and Argentina. There is also a coincidence that the Napoli fans follow carefully: In 1986 Argentina won the World Cup and then Maradona won Napoli for the first time. Today the team is first in Serie A and could win its first Scudetto without Maradona. That is to say, Messi is present in his prayers.”

Even in the US they are waiting for what Messi can achieve. Andrés Cantor, an Argentinian journalist who has lived there for 43 years, main reporter for Telemundo, owner of FDP Radio, an indisputable point of reference and present here in Doha, tells us about it: “In the various farewells before the trip to Qatar as football friends and of colleagues, the common point was the same: I hope Messi can win the Cup. The same thing was said to me by all the people who, recognizing me, expressed their desire to see Messi as champion. Almost a common denominator, Messi against Argentina, and not vice versa, even if the order of the factors does not alter the product”.

It also happens in Mexico, as Inés Sainz, special correspondent of Tv Azteca explains: “Overall, I think the majority are pushing for Messi. He gave us such beautiful football, he made us so happy for so long, it’s like Lo we owe him, it’s obvious, you feel it in the environment, you make it vibrate, how many people there are from all countries with his shirt, including Mexicans, I think so, that the time has come for him and I love him also because we are seeing a braver Messi, with more personality, who knows that if he does things the way he knows how, nothing will take away his glory.”

This World Cup and Messi are almost the same today, they generate remarkable situations. Like the fact that Croatian defender Josko Gvardiol, who became famous for the dance that gave him a 15-year-older Lion in his third goal, openly confesses his fanaticism for the Argentine 10, before and after the match, and that contributes a nice definition: “He had played against Messi, but he’s a completely different player when he plays for the national team.”

Or that outside of football, the actress Jenna Ortega, in full broadcast of the Merlina series in which she is the protagonist, answers the question about the meaning of the word messirve: “You mean cool, right? Of course! Messi is one of the best of all times!”

The World Cup turns the planet upside down for a month, with the magic of Messi breaking records and astonishing everyone with his 35-year-old looking 20-year-old. A planet that mostly accompanies him, stands on his left foot and forces himself to be able to lift the cup on Sunday.

Doha, Qatar. Special delivery