I think he knows he´ll be completely finished by then.
Messi in Miami
- Thread starter Bastian
- Start date
I think he knows he´ll be completely finished by then.
Well he will be 39.
Most players are retired by that age. Just because of his natural ability doesnt mean his body and fitness can keep up. He was never a freak when it came to having an engine and endurance. He had suberb accelleration and agility but that is mostly gone now. He couldnt in terms showing energy on the pitch do what Pepe did at the euros at 42. He´s just not built for it.
From what he said after the semi final it sounded like this was the end for him at major internationals, and I believe that’s probably why he was so distraught when he wrecked his ankle. And it really should be the end at major internationals. Going to the next World Cup would be absolutely senseless, he already looks very mortal now, and he’ll be a shadow of the player by then and nothing that could happen will ever top what he did in the last one. If he calls it quits now he can retire on 3 in a row and as a god of his country to sit up there alongside Diego.
It's been such a joy to see him play all those years... the best player ever without a doubt (and I've seen Maradona)
I was only taking the mickey guys, I'm sorry. I actually don't care at all about Messi or Ronaldo these days.
I was only taking the mick in the first place. But genuinely now I've looked, why is the Copa America held so irregularly? Google says it is held every 4 years but there have been some exceptions. Looking back, it seems to be more irregular than regular. Any idea why?
Been a peripheral part in this Copa.
Would be a mistake to drag himself into the next World Cup.
Argentina will miss him for moments and all that but they have a solid midfield to still get them through games.
Would be a mistake to drag himself into the next World Cup.
Argentina will miss him for moments and all that but they have a solid midfield to still get them through games.
Two Copa Americas and 1 world cup. Good haul in the end after a lot of disappointments
The 2016 edition was a centenary one and the first time they properly involved Concacaf and went to 16 teams.
Before that when Messi was right at its peak it went 2007-2011-2015 so was on the four year cycle just like the Euros.
Not sure why there was one in 2021, perhaps it went out of kilter with the Covid delay but then they also played in 2019.
They changed the cycle from odd years to even to align with the Euros/World Cup. CA 2019 was the last held under the old structure, and the 2021 edition was supposed to take place in 2020 but was delayed for reasons you touched on.
Ankles swell up like that when rolled it happens, sometimes you can run it off, other times you can't. There was no need for all the tears.
It was probably more about not being able to continue playing in the final in probably his last major international tournament. Its obvious glory with Argentina means everything to him.
Meh, suck it up and get on with it. No need for the tears when there's still a game to be won. He should have done a Ronaldo and claimed victory from the touchline.
2 Copas, 1 Gold Medal and 1 World Cup (2 finals). Outstanding international career.
2 player of the tournament Copa America
2 player of the tournament WC
1 mvp Finalissima
And then all the best young player awards.
I did this once, took 3 days to go down and I was fine
Outside the 2014 WC award nonsense, this is a collection of well earned awards.
He deserved that one too
Almost as immature as my posts. Well done.Yeah sure
Thanks.
5 or 10 copa in 9 years who cares 
the goat finished football with Perfection
imagine being the player with most trophies & most individual awards
the goat only respond on the pitch
Ronaldo's fanboys can celebrates his goals against San Marino , Luxembourg , Kazakhstan, Andorra, Lithuania, Feroe island and Moldova
still his biggest achievement is being compared to Messi while he is in fact million years behind
the goat finished football with Perfection
imagine being the player with most trophies & most individual awards
the goat only respond on the pitch
Ronaldo's fanboys can celebrates his goals against San Marino , Luxembourg , Kazakhstan, Andorra, Lithuania, Feroe island and Moldova
still his biggest achievement is being compared to Messi while he is in fact million years behind
5 or 10 copa in 9 years who cares
the goat finished football with Perfection
imagine being the player with most trophies & most individual awards
the goat only respond on the pitch
Ronaldo's fanboys can celebrates his goals against San Marino , Luxembourg , Kazakhstan, Andorra, Lithuania, Feroe island and Moldova
still his biggest achievement is being compared to Messi while he is in fact million years behind
There is a thread for this. Oh well there was
Incredible last 3 years to his international career. Copa - WC - Copa to become only the second country to do continental tournament followed by the world cup followed by another continental title, and the only South American team to do it.
Retiring with a world cup, 2 copas, 4 international player of the tournament awards, and the most goal contributions in world cup history isn't bad. Nobody would have expected this, back in 2019.
Basically, he's lucky that Scaloni turned out to be a genius. But he had so much bad luck prior to Scaloni's arrival, that you can't begrudge him the good fortune of getting a top coach late on in his international career.
He has won now several trebles with club and country.
I still believe that he played most of the tournament injured and never fully fit. Sure, he is now old and can't run like before, but he played most of the games really quiet sometimes. We will know what happened in the future, for sure.
And as Scaloni said, he was crying because of the moment, he wants to help his team the most he can. I'm sure if he goes to WC2026, he will accept his role coming from the bench.
I still believe that he played most of the tournament injured and never fully fit. Sure, he is now old and can't run like before, but he played most of the games really quiet sometimes. We will know what happened in the future, for sure.
And as Scaloni said, he was crying because of the moment, he wants to help his team the most he can. I'm sure if he goes to WC2026, he will accept his role coming from the bench.
You can count with 3 fingers the great coaches Messi had through his career.
Guardiola, Scaloni and Luis Enrique.
And BTW, Lautaro did what Higuaín could never do. Score a goal when he had the chance in a tournament final. Against Chile and Germany, he had chances and did shit with them.
At this point - given everything Argentina has done in the last 3 years - I doubt those misses from Higuain still sting.
I think Argentines can just sit there and laugh at them.
Don't really rate Enrique to be honest, he did not win much outside his barcelona side. Messi got extremely unlucky with coaches for someone of his calibre and playing profile
Well Messi certainly can't claim the credit alone since he's been injured so much but Inter Miami are now top of the table and into the play offs. The Amigos project worked. From worst to best in 1,5 seasons. I thought I'd bump that here rather than start a new thread.
Definitely an area where CR7 has been much more fortunate, having had several of the greatest managers of all time in his corner.
With Messi, even people like Guardiola and Scaloni turned out to be good by accident, they had no pedigree or reputation when they started coaching him. And I agree with others in this thread that Enrique's status as a true great is questionable, but he did have a lot of success in that short window with Barca, so I suppose you could include him on the list of at least competent managers that Messi has been under.
Part of the problem of course is Barcelona's approach to hiring managers, which basically amounts to 'did you play for/have links with Barcelona in the past and/or are you Dutch?'
Real Madrid obviously don't engage in such nonsense, adopting much more of a 'let's pick the best guy (or at least the starriest name)' approach. There was further good fortune for CR at other clubs as well, e.g. having Fergie as one of his first bosses.
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Enrique certainly had one of the greatest forward lines ever assembled, Messi, Neymar and Suarez at their peaks in his treble season. Messi scored 58 goals that season. In the league he scored 43 goals and had 21 assists in 38 games
Those are fecking PlayStation numbers. 64 g/a in 38 league games. Absurd. Across all competitions he had 58 goals and 31 assists in 57 games. So just 89 g/a in 57 games.Those numbers alone make it hard for any coach not to win stuff. But this was also a team that contained Neymar (49 g/a in 51 games) and Suarez (48 g/a in just 43 games). Just in terms of goals (as they were often assisting each other) they scored 58, 39, and 25 goals that season respectively. 122 goals combined, just from the 3 forwards. Obscene numbers. The team also contained Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Rakatic, Pique, Dani Alves, Alba, Mascherano, Ter Stegen. Xavi was 35 but still class, and Rakitic, his replacement contributed 18 g/a that season, while Pedro had 20 g/a just off the bench. Mental.
The thing is, Enrique got that team to play well. Yes it was a brilliant team, but he also knitted it all together, so I don’t like to write him off. He’s always seemed like a pretty savvy coach to me.
On a personal level, Enrique lost his daughter, Xana, to bone cancer in 2019. She was 9 years old. Nine. There are simply no words for how hard it hit me when I heard that. My own daughter is currently nine, and if something were to happen to her. I do not know how I would ever go on. In all honesty, I don’t think I would. But Enrique has two other children, who are both grown up, and he got himself together and goes on. Whenever I see him, or think of him, I can’t shake that loss from my feelings and for that I will always have admiration for the personal strength it took to go on. And I’ll always probably go really easy on him with criticism, because feck….its just football.
Sorry. That took a left turn, and I don’t mean to hijack what was a legitimate point you made about him as a coach, but I had to say that, because some things just transcend all others. My gut tells me that he’s a pretty remarkable person.
To be fair, there have been plenty or rumors and articles written over the years about Messi’s sizeable influence in major decisions at Barcelona, so the fact he didn’t play under more high profile coaches could, in part, have been influenced by the man himself.
Enrique certainly had one of the greatest forward lines ever assembled, Messi, Neymar and Suarez at their peaks in his treble season. Messi scored 58 goals that season. In the league he scored 43 goals and had 21 assists in 38 games
Those numbers alone make it hard for any coach not to win stuff. But this was also a team that contained Neymar (49 g/a in 51 games) and Suarez (48 g/a in just 43 games). Just in terms of goals (as they were often assisting each other) they scored 58, 39, and 25 goals that season respectively. 122 goals combined, just from the 3 forwards. Obscene numbers. The team also contained Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Rakatic, Pique, Dani Alves, Alba, Mascherano, Ter Stegen. Xavi was 35 but still class, and Rakitic, his replacement contributed 18 g/a that season, while Pedro had 20 g/a just off the bench. Mental.
The thing is, Enrique got that team to play well. Yes it was a brilliant team, but he also knitted it all together, so I don’t like to write him off. He’s always seemed like a pretty savvy coach to me.
On a personal level, Enrique lost his daughter, Xana, to bone cancer in 2019. She was 9 years old. Nine. There are simply no words for how hard it hit me when I heard that. My own daughter is currently nine, and if something were to happen to her. I do not know how I would ever go on. In all honesty, I don’t think I would. But Enrique has two other children, who are both grown up, and he got himself together and goes on. Whenever I see him, or think of him, I can’t shake that loss from my feelings and for that I will always have admiration for the personal strength it took to go on. And I’ll always probably go really easy on him with criticism, because feck….its just football.
Sorry. That took a left turn, and I don’t mean to hijack what was a legitimate point you made about him as a coach, but I had to say that, because some things just transcend all others. My gut tells me that he’s a pretty remarkable person.
Exactly, he is stubborn, he is not exactly an established great name but he did a great job dealing with the MSN and also leaving space for some ideas that Barca in general it's not to keen to indulge, like allowing a more direct football specially on the break.
Yet it's true also that Scaloni, Pep, and Luis Enrique weren't established names when thay had Messi, in such terms he didn't had that aspect covererd but like Mou said, at least the majority of them letting be, the issue in the lack of success or general turmoils in Barca, where mostly in other roles, bad transfers, insitutional issues, etc etc. Barca incredibly could have had an even more golden period if someone had managed that ship more tightly like Floren tend to do.
I would have loved Mou, Klopp or Ancelotti to managed Messi, I would have hated Simeone or Van Gaal doing it, I would never get why Setien, Pochettino, Galtier, Sampaoli and cia had such priviledge.
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That influence would always exist with such players, specially when keeping his closer friends and everyday priviledges, but at the same there was so many proofs of Barca actually not buying players that he publicly wanted, or letting leave lots of his closer fellas, or hiring far from well regarded coaches and lots of issues that weren't clearly on his best interests or predilections.
Even in PSG was quite a mess
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Martino can take some real credit in that. He’s missed key players for long chunks because of Copa, but they’ve risen to top of the table. That said, the level in MLS is so dire, that any decently organised team can do well there. The margins are huge. Miami lost 6-1 to Cincinnati just recently, then bounced back win a bunch of wins. To get into the playoffs, teams can afford to lose a lot, and I mean a lot, of games.
Will he even return back for the playoffs?
Might be more seriously injured than initially reported.
Might be more seriously injured than initially reported.