First, he collapsed to the ground, his face full of pain. The game continued for a few seconds, and then there was a gasp.
Lionel Messi is depressed. Messi is not a player who falls for no reason.
The Argentina playmaker and talisman grabbed his right ankle. He fell on his own, with no apparent kick, because he knew the injury meant his night was over.
He took off his right boot and stood up carefully. The physiotherapists asked him how he was, but they must have known. He shuffled toward the touchline, each step like a small dagger in the Argentinian’s heart. Then the board goes up: Nicolas Gonzalez comes on, Messi comes off.
Messi slowly walked to the bench and dropped his boots to the floor. He slumped into his seat and covered his face with his hands. His teammate Leandro Paredes ruffled his hair but said nothing. What’s there to say?
A second or two later, the camera returns to Messi, zooming in on the most recognizable face in football. Even human nature. And the perseverant Messi could no longer suppress his inner excitement.
The crowd chanted his name. Messi is sobbing.
The tears were for that moment – Argentina needed him; they always are – but it is impossible to abstract them from their wider context. For Messi, no matter where he ends up in this long career, there is always an unmistakable sense of closure.
Messi is 37 years old. The ambient music surrounding the Argentinian team suggested this might be his last major tournament appearance. He will be 38 when the next World Cup kicks off in the United States, Mexico and Canada, and will turn 39 during the tournament.
Those endless summers spent watching Messi play on the football pitch of our souls? Now they can be numbered.
Stopping is never an attractive prospect for any athlete. They say athletes die twice. Messi’s incredible longevity and continued excellence have been an effective shield against retirement talk, but no one can run forever. There comes a point where everything you do becomes your last. Everything has a heavy ending.
Obviously, Messi seems to already know what is waiting for him on the other side of greatness. “I’m a little scared that this is going to end,” he told ESPN Argentina earlier this year. “I try not to think about it. I try to enjoy it. I do it more now because I know there’s not much time left.
He certainly didn’t expect to be stripped of much of his remaining balance on this stifling, tense night at Hard Rock Stadium. As he sat on the bench with an ice pack on his swollen ankle and a yellow vest covering his blue and white jersey, it was easy to wonder what Messi was thinking.
(Juan Mabromata/AFP via Getty Images)
Maybe, in that case, he just became a fan. Perhaps the vision of the team playing without him — an image he would have to adapt to for decades to come — twisted his already knotted interior into new, uncomfortable shapes.
After the game, Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said Messi did not want to come off the field but his injury made any other options redundant.
“Leo has something that everyone should have,” Scaroni said. “He’s the best player ever and even with this ankle, he doesn’t want to leave.
“It’s not because he’s selfish, it’s because he doesn’t want to let his teammates down. He was born to be on the court.
At least it was a relief at the end. When Lautaro Martinez scored the winning goal four minutes before midnight in Miami, it showed that the biggest group of players was not surrounding the goalscorer. No, Argentine players are flocking to Messi, he is their guiding light.
(Juan Mabromata/AFP via Getty Images)
“When we talk about players who have left a mark on football history, when we start to see the end, we try to extend their careers,” his Inter Miami coach Tata Martino said recently. “I believe Leo and his family are preparing for that ending to come. It’s for everyone.
Messi hasn’t arrived yet. When the injury heals, he will continue to play in MLS and maybe even do his part to get Argentina into the World Cup, but this is Messi’s final episode in the tournament and another one towards the end. Transfer. The real ending. One day, this ridiculous, magical, laugh-out-loud football player elf jumped into the past tense.
“I’m lucky that I get to do what I love,” Messi said in Apple’s documentary about his American adventure. “I know these are my last years and I know I’m going to miss it so much when I don’t have that because no matter how much I want to do, it’s not going to be like this.”
There may not be another big final. There would never be another night like this again, a night of pristine glory for his country. So, long before the celebration, he cried. You can understand that.
(Top: Juan Mabromata; Buda Mendez; Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images; Design: Ray Orr)
