Lionel Messi celebrates his 30th year on Saturday, June 24. Messi is one of the most discussed and comments sport personality in the world. He is one of the few truly genius offensive players in the history of football who can play in any offensive position.
Why most football fans and the kids in particular love Lionel Messi?
First off, Messi plays football and doesn’t show 0ff. He is not focused on producing pretentious displays of his own football genius, on his skills on the pitch or on his personal accomplishments. Like any other player, Messi wants to win trophies and appreciates when he gets acknowledgement for his qualities and contribution to the game. However, unlike most other popular, talented football personalities he looks humble.
Take Cristiano Ronaldo for example. I don’t think that we’d even compare Messi to Ronaldo in terms of footballing qualities. It wouldn’t be fair to any of them as they play football in a very different way. Ronaldo is more like a classic forward while Lionel Messi is an universal offensive player – probably the best No 10 in the modern football (by saying “modern” I mean after the Second World War). However, unlike Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, despite being a great personality, like showing off.
Another thing that adds to Messi’s magic is his smile. Lio’s got a great likability. He’s smile is like a kid’s smile and makes it easier for the football fans to like him, no matter who they support.
Messi is versatile offensive player. He could play on any position, starting with No 8. He is equally good deployed on both flanks. Despite being only 1.69 m. tall he’d play as central forward or “False 9”, something he has done on a number of occasions. Hi undisputedly best position is No 10, however. It allows him to play long-side on the whole pitch to rotate with others in Barcelona’s attack, especially in a formation with Neymar and Luis Suarez.
Lionel Messi is a team player! He is as much team player as could be anyone who can achieve virtually anything with the bak in his legs. We have probably seen him in a number of situations, when he decided to shoot the ball himself, rather than passing it to a teammate, who was in a relatively better position. Player’s selfishness on the pitch are one judged by fans’ standards, however.
In a real situation during the game, players have only fews seconds or even less to decide what to do with the ball. Many offensive players, who’d not even dare to think about getting close to Lionel Messi prefer to shoot the ball themselves or to make any other move which either looks to be wrong form the beginning or just proves to be wrong. Messi has been entertaining us and succeeding in many situations when scoring a goal or creating a situation looks close to impossible.
Messi creates the game, he doesn’t just plays it. Just go and watch some of Leo’s performances and to find out that a match with him and one without him is just a different game of football.
We should feel for Leo for one simple reason. He experiences the defenders’ brutality on regular basis. As it is hard to block him or stop him, most defenders are ruthless against him. He is probably the most tackled offensive player in today’s football.
Messi is one-club man, who enjoys football and reinvents the game!
Finally, Lionel Messi is unique in the today’s football for one very important reason. He is “One-Club Man”. There are very few like Lionel Messi and I’d mention their names with respect, just to emphasize the importance of Lionel Messis decision to spent his player’s carrier in Barcelona FC. Most popular one-club players who won titles and trophies with their teams are Carles Puyol for Barcelona, Franco Baresi and Paolo Maldini for Milan, Sandro Mazzola, Giacinto Facchetti and Giuseppe Bergomi for Inter, Toni Adams for Arsenal, Packie Bonner for Celtic, Jamie Carragher for Liverpool, Bernd Durnberger, Franz Roth and Klaus Augenthaler for Bayern Munich, Santana and Sheu for Benfica, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville and Bill Foulkes for Manchester United, Eddie Gray for Leeds United, Francesco Totti for Roma.
Messi’s carrier stats are unbelievable. His 349 goals in 382 games for Barcelona don’t even require any comments or analysis. He has won 6 FIFA Ballon d’Or “Golden Balls”, but the most important thing is that he just enjoys the game.
This only title which hasn’t been able to win do far is the World Cup with Argentina, despite being very close of few occasions.
Born in Rosario, Lionel Messi started paying as a kid of Newell’s Old Boys, but a hormonal problem affected his growth and changed his future. Messi needed expensive treatment and his parents decide to move to Spain as Newell’s Old Boys couldn’t afford to pay the medical costs. Everyone knows his story. We’d wish him to keep playing and entertaining the world.
Happy 30th birth Mr. Messi. Please keep playing!
