Mayank Chhaya-
As a casual watcher of football bereft of visceral passion, I feel a particular affinity for Lionel Andrés Messi because of his deceptively laidback style on the field. There were several moments during the just concluded epic Argentina-France World Cup final where he seemed to exude uninterest. It was anything but that.
I found him static at several points during the game. It was almost as if he were there against his wish and better judgment. The word lackadaisical came frequently to my mind. And then suddenly he would be animated as if he had drawn a bolt of electricity from the ground. His legs would be propelled by an unusual burst of energy and his feet’s movement would be sharp and deft while dealing with the ball. It is an extraordinary gift to be able to combine such speed with deftness. It is the hallmark of a player in supreme control of his preternatural abilities.
After that burst of activity, Messi would be once again his sedate but self-assured self either just ambling across the field or static. As one watched more of him doing less, one understood how unbelievably efficient he was expending his personal energy. I am not even a remotely committed admirer of any particular team or even a particular player. However, I make an exception for Messi. It reminded me of my unequivocal admiration for the master batsman Sunil Gavaskar. No matter whether India won or lost, I always wanted Gavaskar to score a century. I was conscious that I was being selfish on Gavaskar’s behalf even though, I am sure, he was playing for the team.
In Messi’s case, one knew that he was clearly playing for the team even while he was also playing for himself. It so happens that the fortunes of Argentina for years have become so inextricably linked with those of Messi’s. I cannot emphasize enough that I am not an avid football watcher, but Messi’s pull on me has been irresistible.
Messi’s apparent torpor is like a deadly trap for his opponents. He is so swift that his activity burst is necessarily short-lived. Within that short period, he does the most damage to his adversary. I do not know how much of that has to do with his diminutive physicality, a consequence of his well-documented childhood problems with growth hormone deficiency (GHD). I discovered that when he was first diagnosed with GHD he was four feet two inches as opposed to five feet seven inches now, the average height of Argentinian men. He had to be injected with human growth hormone (HGH) early on. His GHD was diagnosed when he was 11.
His deceptively laidback style was on display in all its glory during the Argentina-Croatia semifinal when he zipped past the 20-year-old defender Joško Gvardiol deftly passing to Julián Álvarez who scored a goal. Until that happened there was nothing in his body language to suggest what was impending for the Croatians. He did something similar in today’s final against France.
My knowledge and understanding of football are admittedly very limited but I have a fairly good handle on its physics. Every time Messi scored during this World Cup, or at any rate what I saw of his goals in the highlights of the pre-semifinal games I could tell from the trajectory of his movement that he was going to score. When he did, it felt as if either he had rearranged the field to suit his play, or the field had rearranged itself in deference to him.
His center of gravity seemed remarkably low keeping his feet firmly planted on the ground. From what little I have seen of him, he does not lift off the ground frequently. That is perhaps in keeping with relatively small stature even though at 5-7 he is not dramatically short at all.
The fact that the Argentinian and Messi triumph came in the face of France’s 23-year-old rising star Kylian Mbappé scoring the first hat trick in a final in 56 years is evidence that Messi has made a league where only he exists.
As an aside, it is interesting to note that when Argentina last won the World Cup in 1986, Messi was not even born. He was born on June 24, 1987. Now he has become the embodiment of his country’s excellence in league with the iconic Diego Maradona, who led Argentina’s World Cup win that year and with whom Messi has always been compared and benchmarked. With Messi’s 2022 World Cup victory he has finally attained the exalted status of his Maradona.
