It could only be yet another “normal” wonder to seal the 700th net. At Atletico Madrid, two years ago, he had also reserved his 600th. Yesterday a penalty, like a penalty was the (unofficial) goal n. 1000 di Pelè way back in November 1969: the “usual” spoon, soft, safe. Because to hit the ball in that way it is necessary to have every muscle contracted, up to and above all that of the big toe of the dominant foot. And then the soul decontracted: be sure of what you want to do. Otherwise you hit giving more strength, you don’t go under the ball enough, stroking it and at the same time ideally cutting a part of it as if you had a knife instead of your foot. Putting certain things he does with his eyes closed, not thinking of anything else but thinking of the right. Never again, because every superstructure is useless. Messi has returned from the lockdown with a rejuvenated appearance, he has already cut his hair twice, he has shaved his ears, maybe he really wants us to understand that he is feeling fresher than before. Of his 700 goals, each of us remembers at least 200 of them. Rarely have they been trivial markings, like that Messi was there and he just had to put the plate. Rarely has Messi not seasoned his glory with other supplementary glories, such as a passage to call the triangle or a serpentine. Of all, difficult, I would invite you to memorize the one at Betis that the whole Villamarin stadium stood up to applaud with some of the home fans who even moaned in fear: “Mamma mia che visto!”. And thanks for being there, to be overwhelmed by all that charm: “When football is this, there are no opponents, we are all a big family,” said Alan Shearer, commenting on that game.
It was March 17, 2019. He had made three, but one of these, with a cut to the dry balloon, just entered the area, on the support of Rakitic, would also melt the hearts of ice and will always melt them. A softness that does not exist in nature. We die more football than that, because it is football from the high spheres and a soccer ball, professionalism and childhood purity. More poetry than this, merged in the era of its maximum mediaticity and expressed with a mixture of intuition and muscularity, is not expected. Messi reached 700 goals playing 862 games, 111 fewer than Ronaldo needed to reach the same goal (he was against Ukraine, even in that case a penalty, during the qualifying session at Euro 2020). If this continues, the projection to 2022, when Messi will be 35, that is, Ronaldo’s current age, says that Leo could become the most prolific of all time. Messi has just entered the magnificent seven room. Lead the legendary Austrian-Czechoslovakian Josef Bican, a myth of Central European football, with 805 goals. Then Romario (772), Pele (767), Puskas (746), Müller (735) and Ronaldo (728). Both Pele and Bican would have exceeded 1000 networks, but with uncertifiable data. But it is the details behind Messi’s 700 goals, the numbers only apparently secondary, that increase the value of his challenge: he has scored more than 40 goals in each of the last eleven seasons, exceeding 50 in nine of these. In 2012 he scored 91 goals. As for assists, 294 were recorded. As regards his frequency, it seems that he chose even years to give full numbers: in 2012 he scored his network n. 300, to Granada in 2014 the n.400, to Valencia in 2016 the n. 500 and in 2018 the No. 600 at Atletico Madrid. Reserved, polite and humble, Leo summarizes the sizes of others and filters them with his own character, transforming them into a humanly and football-friendly model, without nervous waste.
The only regret is that at the moment it seems that Messi is no longer enough for his Barcelona. Back on the field after the break, Setien’s team lost the head of La Liga, it seems to suffer more from the lack of the public: the empty Camp Nou is stabbed. The fact is that Barça does not seem able to support the greatness of its leader on the pitch, nor can it contrast, from a distance, the greater solidity of Real Madrid, which can also count on the advantage in direct clashes, so that if they reached the championship on equal points would go to Real Madrid. It seems that Messi has repeatedly acknowledged, without going too far, that winning has never been a certainty. Even less now. Deeply shaken by a serious problem of technical identity, the effect of the progressive departure from Guardiola’s philosophy, from Tata Martino to Setien, passing through Luis Enrique and Valverde, the Barça asks Messi to build the furniture and clean the house. We no longer have time to wait for the young people of the cantera, the Masia, which just happens to be just because there are no outlets, is producing less and less prospects (apart from Fati). After all, Messi is one thing and his generation is another, indeed it is completely different. Most of his time has gone away, some have stopped, others are retired elsewhere (Xavi, Iniesta). Piqué, Busquets and Jordi Alba remain. Suarez, very great, is no longer a boy and gets hurt often. Griezmann did not enter the mechanisms and hearts (Setien made him enter only in the recovery against Atletico and the controversies are wasted), Vidal is a talented, but confusing euphoric, De Jong is very good but he almost always plays out of role. Semedo has improved but it would take more on the wing. So? For the Champions League (there is still the return of round of 16 against Napoli) you could ask Messi even more. Try it. Maybe Leo has other miracles on tiptoe.
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