By Abdulrazak Iliyasu Sansani
As the most followed game in the world, football has moments that its fans don’t envision. Sometimes they do but keenly wish it never comes to pass. For Football Club Barcelona fanatics, that day came three days ago.
For quite some years, Messi has been embroiled in a crisis with the Bartomeu led board. So naturally, this has affected the Argentine, who has come to identify and be identified with everything Barcelona. For someone who came as a child with growth deficiency, signed on a napkin, only to defy all odds, and cement his status as one of the greatest players of all time, arguably, the greatest player of all time.
I first got to watch Messi play in FIFA under 20 World Cup, Netherland 2005, where he went on to score two penalties in the final and win the Cup against my dear country, Nigeria. From there, I knew a generational talent had emerged. Still, little did I know that that young man from Rosario would go on to win all competitions he has contested, except the FIFA World Cup, which he could still win in a trophy-laden career that has made only the great Brazilian utility player, Dani Alves to have won more titles in the history of the round leather game.
There is every reason not to doubt this phenomenal player. If I ever had any doubts about the magical Messi, all were quelled when on March 10th 2007, aged just 19-years-old, the youngster was the star of the show in El Clasico, outshining his illustrious teammates Samuel Eto’o and Ronaldinho, to win a vital point for his team by scoring a hat-trick in club football most prominent feature, against the greatest football club in history, Real Madrid. On that day, for me, Messi proved beyond any iota of doubt that he would be one of the greats.
With everything going on well from that point: with all his abundant talent, the right atmosphere, and everything in place. Still, Lionel Messi’s transformation from football prodigy to become one of the few players that deserve a place in the debate of the greatest players of all time, with so many claiming he is the outright GOAT, is impressive. Irrespective of your opinion in this debate: there are so many facts that concur with such views.
Rarely has the world seen a better all-round football player who could function as a midfielder as well as a striker flawlessly. A player who often competes with the most clinical strikers for golden boots while struggling it out with the best midfield maestros for the most assists in so many seasons. Lionel Messi is out of this world.
While you might not support him, you cannot deny the fact that what Messi does on the pitch, season in season out, for more than a decade, at the highest level, is the dream of every young footballer from my remote village of Sansani, to Jalingo, Bali, Arochukwu, Ogbomosho, Freetown, Lome, London, Paris, New Jersey, and to all the nooks and crannies of the world.
The home training I got abhor hatred. It absolutely doesn’t permit it. This has influenced all my activities. This is why some would be astonished to know that I am a Real Madrid football fan and writing all this for the greatest player of our biggest rivals, FC Barcelona. But I cannot hate greatness. If any player has made the difference for Barcelona in El Clasico, it is Leo. This had often been the difference between success and failure for Barcelona and Real Madrid too.
To some, it should be a significant factor in making me antagonistic towards anything Messi. But I don’t think so. Of course, I cannot hate the defence-splitting passes, the vision, the offensive nous of bringing something out of nothing, the breathtaking dribbling, which once produced a physics-defying goal. No, I don’t do my things this way.
I cherish greatness; I bow before the best in awe; I celebrate the mercurial Messi knowing this genius has entertained the football world to stupor. Wherever he goes, I wish him the very best. All things being equal, whichever club he goes will naturally have the edge to achieve their lofty ambitions.
For those who will always view Messi’s greatness through warped lenses, I say to them don’t waste your precious time, the six-time Ballon d’Or winner has nothing to prove in this beautiful game that he has already broken almost every record breakable and set new ones, which for want of space I won’t list them here. However, they are well known by football supporters worldwide.
Yes, he can’t break all the records; none can. But, of course, you are allowed to continue to raise the bar for him, and this football living legend will have a little problem proving you wrong while effortlessly doing what he loves best, playing football and winning trophies.
Abdulrazak Iliyasu Sansani, a Real Madrid fan, wrote from Jalingo, Taraba State. He can be reached via abdulrazaksansani93@gmail.com.
