Argentina

Mehessi is right. I'm Brazilian but I have a lot of Argie friends and try to go to Buenos Aires every time I'm in South America. The attitude towards him is very confusing and plain weird for one of the best players of all times and GOAT of this generation.

Some of my friends who don't like him claim its because they don't see him as a real Argentinian. Others who do like him as a player just complain that they don't see Messi perform for Argentina the same way he does for Barca.

They may not bash him outright but they certainly don't appreciate him the way they should imo.

There is a really good in depthESPN article about Messi and his connection to Argentina. One of the best things I've read about the topic. It's long but good.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=lionel-messi

Here is another good read.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/08/magazine/the-burden-of-being-messi.html

CuleLife4Life said:

Mehessi is right. I'm Brazilian but I have a lot of Argie friends and try to go to Buenos Aires every time I'm in South America. The attitude towards him is very confusing and plain weird for one of the best players of all times and GOAT of this generation.

Some of my friends who don't like him claim its because they don't see him as a real Argentinian. Others who do like him as a player just complain that they don't see Messi perform for Argentina the same way he does for Barca.

They may not bash him outright but they certainly don't appreciate him the way they should imo.

There is a really good in depthESPN article about Messi and his connection to Argentina. One of the best things I've read about the topic. It's long but good.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=lionel-messi

Click to expand...

Thanx a lot for that link mate, reading through it right now, and just the beginning "visiting Rosario, you wouldn't guess this is were Messi was born" pretty much resumes it.

There's a very good documentary by Canal+ France called "Messi, le petit devenu géant" (Messi the little boy that became huge) that really shows all the timeline from his debut in Barcelona, I took it on me to make the subtitles for the entire thing to show it to my Argentinian friends to may be get them to understand why he is considered amongst the best in history for those who watch european football .. well, they watched it like they would watch twilight, they were bored, "is there a part about the National team?" , that's all they cared about, and this were guys that play football, and support their shitty argentinian 2nd division teams to death, week in week out, like it was the Champions League .. to them, he's simply not argentinian, not as much as "pipita highuain" is, or aguero.. damn, I even heard someone say Riquelme is better than him ... simply because he never played in the argentina league, and this will never change.


I can't help but wonder, what IF, he had accepted to play for spain ... he'd probably have 3 world cups!

It's not only about Messi. I remember many years ago Pekerman said Argentinians are not really grateful for what they have and if Riquelme for example was Brazilian he was going to be praised like Pele there. An Argentine friend of mine say "yeah many believe that Messi is not really Argentine and he doesn't care about the NT as much as he does for Barca, I know it's wrong we think like that but still, that's the way it is"!

There is a 50% chance I end up in Argentina next year, so I have a better chance to take a closer look at what the hell is going on with people there.

Razor said:

There is a 50% chance I end up in Argentina next year, so I have a better chance to take a closer look at what the hell is going on with people there.

Click to expand...

Argentina is a wonderfull country, Buenos Aires is incredible, people there are very chatty and easy to socialize with etc .. if you like football you might end up watching an atrociously borring game and not understand why your friends are screaming like crazy for this jajaja also, argentinians are beautifull, most beautiful girls i've seen my whole life, and i've been to more than 20countries, Argentina is the italia of south america

Mehssi said:

Argentina is a wonderfull country, Buenos Aires is incredible, people there are very chatty and easy to socialize with etc .. if you like football you might end up watching an atrociously borring game and not understand why your friends are screaming like crazy for this jajaja also, argentinians are beautifull, most beautiful girls i've seen my whole life, and i've been to more than 20countries, Argentina is the italia of south america

Click to expand...

La Plata is my likely destination. The prices are lower there and the city's close to Buenos Aires.

Razor said:

La Plata is my likely destination. The prices are lower there and the city's close to Buenos Aires.

Click to expand...

You'd like it pretty much everywhere I think, the only bad thing about Argentina is there's no beach (the water is freezing all year), other than that, i've been to salta, cordoba, rosario, mar del plata, and lived for a year in Buenos Aires and loved all of them!

I think things will change if Messi can win something for Argentina

D10S_JC said:

I think things will change if Messi can win something for Argentina

Click to expand...

I'm actually hopefull, with a new bread of wingers/strikers like Vietto Dybala etc .. and Messi mastering the game creation role it can happen in 2018, I really wish it for him, especially since it will probably be his last WC..

Again, nothing I wrote has been refuted adequately. Not lauding or admiring your country's biggest star, and being indifferent towards him doesn't equate to individually scapegoating him for a defeat, in this case the final. You won't find many blaming messi's sole instance as reason for the loss. But what messi's fan-brigade does is pick selective plays of his teammates and blame them entirely for the team's misfortune. It was not x, y or z's missed chances, but a matter of poor finishing on the day, and lack of luck. Sometimes the most daunting of plays are effectuated with ease and frequency, and at times the expected is rendered insurmountable. That's the name of the game. I'm sure messi himself doesn't hold any individual accountable for the defeat.

What is annoying is that the same rabid bunch will once again be bandwagon-ing ARG during the Copa, and any individual lapse on the part of Messi's less talented and less fancy NT teammates will be conveniently used to excuse Messi's own failings, if any. And it wouldn't matter if it's (currently) the more liked, the new gen in Vietto, Icardi, Dybala. We are aware of the the drill..

There is/was a LOT of scapegoating towards messi, again, I was there!

But hey, let's just agree to disagree on this one

If he put the effort in he has been doing a few games ago, ARG would have won with ease, he was walking around without a care in the world, his goals in the group stage really bailed him out, otherwise he would've been slaughtered.

But yeah always others fault on this forum, the coaches, finess coaches, goalkeeper, manager, higuain. Whatever you can come up with

If he played with even half of Arjen Robben's desire, job done.

Ode to Django said:

If he put the effort in he has been doing a few games ago, ARG would have won with ease, he was walking around without a care in the world, his goals in the group stage really bailed him out, otherwise he would've been slaughtered.

But yeah always others fault on this forum, the coaches, finess coaches, goalkeeper, manager, higuain. Whatever you can come up with

Click to expand...

Yes, because other players would have magically appeared to connect and link up with him and Higuain, Aguero and others would have got back in fantastic form by themselves if Messi ran a bit more.

DonAK said:

Yes, because other players would have magically appeared to connect and link up with him and Higuain, Aguero and others would have got back in fantastic form by themselves if Messi ran a bit more.

Click to expand...

Yeah blame game yet again, the excuses were there before the WC even started, the defense is fodder, the GK is crap huhuhu, which was all aload of nonsense. Straight forward group stage & a easy route to the final, but they can't do it because Messi's teammates suck. Load of rubbish.

That's what turns me off about Argentina, the legion of fanboys, two brain cells between the lot of them.

He didn't play very well himself, constantly dispossesed, travelling the lowest distance out of everyone & he's the captain! with the rubbish he was saving himself (there's another classic)

If he played with the attitude he has had for Barcelona recently, zero doubt in my mind they would've won, because he is pretty much unplayable. But he didn't, so.

DonAK said:

Yes, because other players would have magically appeared to connect and link up with him and Higuain, Aguero and others would have got back in fantastic form by themselves if Messi ran a bit more.

Click to expand...

I think Di Maria's injury was the worst thing that could've happened, it could have changed everything, DM and Mashe were the only other ones at top level, all the rest is rubish, even Lavezzi with all the good will in the world, he just couldn't stop running and running up until the corner point, every single time, again, and again, and again .. no matter if it didn't work the 100times before that, just like we did against malaga

Anyway.. too many bad memories, although, I was sad for Messi, but happy for the brazilians, the argentinian fans were AWFULL all the month ..