Like all of us, I am scared, nervous, and hopeful. No one knows, on Tuesday, whether Buenos Aires or Paris will shower with joy, leaving another in deep-dead silence. But without a doubt, I bet on La Albicelestes to reclaim the title against Les Blues, the star-studded defending champions. Now we are waiting to meet our ultimate fate.
So at Lusail Stadium, it may either be a miracle or a tragedy, but football will win and the best team will come out on top after a month-long magnificent rivalry. One thing is pretty sure, whatever the outcome goes, no one will feel the hunger, desperation and craze better than the Argentines and their supporters, particularly fans of Lionel Messi.
In this post, I’m sharing my very personal experiences and opinions about this wonderful sport. As a kid, we loved so much Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima, The Phenomenon, he was our childhood sport-hero in my generation. Seeing him play was so exciting, and we would love to have a bald haircut to imitate him. I can still recall how he scored two outstanding goals against Germany at the Korea-Japan world cup.
After a while, my attention turned to cricket as Bangladesh began to become a promising cricketing nation with stars like Rafiq, Mashrafee, Ashraful, and Aftab. Since we couldn’t compete internationally, I kind of avoid football. During my first year at university, I noticed some of my classmates enjoyed La Liga or El Clásico at night and mentioned Lionel Messi when they talked about the game. I knew that guy was a good, humble player but it didn’t excite me more, until one night.
At that time while facing an emotional crisis, I searched on YouTube for some random motivational videos and came across a video article titled ‘Messi is a dog, a sick man who never dives’ (Actually he did some). For god’s sake, I watched it without pause, blinking a few times and realized my eyes were wet. Interestingly, the video did not showcase his magical football skills on the field but rather his commitment and love for the game. From then on, I fell in love with football even more and it elevated me to supporting the Argentina national football team.
Whenever people say Messi is not enough for his country, he is a club player who plays for money, I feel pierced in the heart. Until he won Copa América Championship last year, people mocked his early retirement announcement, but they forgot he had to face four major final defeats to accept this burden.
Lionel Messi, again, is proving himself in every match on this world stage, and still, he may lift the world cup for Argentina after 36 years, or maybe something very different will happen. This guy everyone talking about, Mbappe may have a fierce run to decide the game, or Griezmann, Giroud or another performer may outdo Leo Messi on the field. It can get even worse if he misses the penalty or an opportunity in a crucial moment as it happened before.
Whatever happens, we are ready to accept our luck. But you Leo, please never feel down, you loved football so much, you made football more beautiful, football never seemed dull on your foot, and you have proved to people more than enough, football itself owes to you. If you win the big night, one of our lifelong dreams will come true and if it doesn’t, remember for a true king a crown is never necessary, the whole world is cheering for you and that’s enough. We love you, Leo.
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Gandaria, Dhaka, 17th December 2022
