A fan holds up a poster of Lionel Messi in Buenos Aires this Saturday. LUIS ROBAYO (AFP)
I don’t know what or who to attribute the chance to, dear son, but like mom and dad, Gino, you were born in the year of the World Cup and you had to accompany this Argentina that today beat Australia and got into the quarterfinals of your first world championship.
Your first championship, which you premiere, is also Messi’s last. It may seem unbelievable to you but this 1.69 meter man who opened the game again with a goal is collecting Ballons d’or and trophies in a display case which he would easily trade for this one he is now looking for in Qatar and who never won .
You don’t know it yet, but Messi was – he still is, in your early days – the best routine in the world. A guy who plays every three or four days and whom we’ve followed on TV for years to uncover the impossible: how come everyone in the world knows him and yet he’s unpredictable? Luckily we didn’t learn his secrets, neither did we.
I told you, here we are going through this tournament that must have exhausted you. Her father, who was belly led through the women’s audience at the Bombonera, where her grandmother took him every Sunday – and breastfed – came to England in 1966.
It’s a fond memory of a World Cup because Argentina played England, a classic of our football. This World Cup has its own history. Antonio Rattín was sent off in the quarterfinals game. Your father would like to combine his own rebellious history with the influence of Rattín, a Boca idol who was expelled annoyed by the performance of German referee Rudolf Kreitlein. Number 5 himself nurtured his own legend, for many a myth that didn’t exist: he went to the corner flag, twisted an English flag (imagine disrespecting the English at Wembley, his own home) and then sat up Queen Elizabeth’s red carpet.
I don’t know if you will understand the historical coincidences, but you may see your father disregard investiture on a few occasions. You’ll see that he doesn’t sing the anthem, that his dream is to be nagged by all the River fans, and that he can go to meetings at the Casa Rosada in shorts and flip-flops. I fell in love with it and maybe it also speaks to my own origins because I arrived in Spain in the year of the 1982 World Cup.
The players we see now weren’t even born yet. Who knows, you might ask us about Enzo Fernández or Julián Alvarez shirts. It’s logical: you learn to score goals with them. The 1982 World Cup, the World Cup of my birth, was Diego Maradona’s first. And it was his disappointment. He was already a Barcelona player and recognized around the world, but he didn’t perform as expected and was sent off in the clash against Brazil after a stirrup due to his own impotence.
Mom is a frustrated soccer player, Gino. And maybe the arrival this year and with it Diego was an influence. Life without shades of grey. In the face of a little frustration on the pitch, the demons jump out. And they fight, and the game that could be played gets tangled because anger obscures ideas and moves with the ball.
I’ll confess it to you now, while we look at the win against Australia and can tell you the opposite. For example Argentina’s patience to finish game after game in this cup. Without counting the duel with Arabia of course, but look son: that first half of the lead but without clear arrivals and then yes, the clarity of Messi to open the gap between four rivals and eight legs and pave the way to victory.
Don’t be fooled into thinking routine is boring: let Messi be your example, Gino. That the players and the teams – and the games, like today – are worked with head and heart.
You got that rare trophy son but you arrived with a world cup like mom and dad. We sometimes let you sleep with your back to the TV, but we know you’ll hear what’s happening. The doctors tell us: Now, in your one and a half months of life, sounds are your attraction.
You were born listening to the screams of goals and the praises of Messi. Not liking football would be an excruciating nightmare. Now on to another game, Argentina are already in the quarterfinals.
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