The retirement of Lionel Messi from the Argentinian National Soccer Team is nothing but his frustration of kicking the penalty over the bar and not winning any major Trophy for his country like Maradona. As a matter of fact, we must know one thing very well that Maradona was Maradona, he was the one man team capable of winning not only the match but the whole tournament. In 1986 when he spearheaded the victory of Argentina in the World Cup, the great Bobby Charlton of victorious England team of 1966 World Cup said, “Argentina won because Argentina played with 12 players, that means, one Maradona is equal to two”. His half a decade in Italy playing for Napoli was the most glorious phase of his career and fortunately for me by being in Kuwait I was fortunate to watch his each and every game on Kuwait TV. Messi cannot achieve what Maradona did achieve though he was very good according to the World current soccer standard.
Messi’s decision to retire at this young age of 29 is wrong, there is lot of football stored in him thru which he can still entertain the spectators and viewers all around the globe. According to me he is the best player currently, better than Portuguese Ronaldo. The way Messi sprints with the ball evading past a number of defenders is itself a big thriller. Dribbling the ball at that high speed is not a joke and only Messi can do this.
Just because he kicked the penalty out he should not be so much disappointed so as to go into retirement. The great Brazilian penalty experts Dr. Socrates and Zico and French Platini have also missed their penalties during the critical World Cup matches and yet they never retired in frustration. However, we must thank Messi for not retiring from the Club level soccer that matters him the most, moneywise and famewise.
It must be noted here that the 3 greatest footballers of this planet were produced by Argentina, namely Alfred Di Stefano, Diogo Armando Maradona and Lionel Messi. According to World soccer pundits, Alfredo Di Stefano stands taller than everyone, including the great Pele but since he played during different era with different circumstances, much of his shine remained unreached to the wider people.
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