So said the writer Osvaldo Soriano “No one is completely Argentine without a good failure, without a complete, intense frustration, worth unending sorrow.” The definition is perhaps like a DNA of the Argentine identity, like a DNI or a passport that legalizes the nationality. A necessary condition that Lionel Messi found strangely elusive. And that hurt, disturbed and was not understood.
Messi, from Rosario, with Argentine parents, Argentine brothers, with an Argentine accent, a fan of Newell, a lover of mate and of Maradona, could not quite be a son of the country. At least I couldn’t make it public. What else did he need to stop being an outsider? What other procedures did he have to do so that his country, the country where he was born and grew up until puberty, would recognize him without nuance? Which setting should be used to formalize the claim?
In the green rectangle, Messi did everything right, like the most diligent student: he broke records old and new, he scored all sorts of goals, which had been seen and which had never been seen, he made up fantasies and was the most admired in every famous tournament. Of course, he was not always crowned champion, and also lost painful finals. However, after the defeats, he presented a virtue worthy of admiration: he recovered quickly, quite quickly and continued to shine with his round toy, as if nothing had happened.
But there was a day, in 2016, when all that changed. There was one night, in the United States, that he felt “a good failure, a complete, intense frustration, worthy of an infinite punishment”all those circumstances that according to Soriano You have to travel at least once in your life to be a good Argentinian.
On 26 June 2016, Argentina lost the final of the Copa América on penalties to Chile, the third consecutive final (2014 against Germany at the World Cup; 2015 also against Chile at the Copa América). At that day, Messi did not hide his tears and announced after taking a shower that he was resigning from the national team. “I’ve already tried a lot, it hurts me more than anyone that I can’t be champion with Argentina, but that’s the way it is, it didn’t happen and unfortunately I’m leaving without being able to achieve it… That’s it, the national team is over for me”, This is how he argued his decision. And added: “It’s a great sadness that happened to us again and besides I have to miss the penalty kick… I’ve tried a lot already, it hurts me more than anyone that I can’t become champions with Argentina, but it’s like that didn’t happen and unfortunately I’m leaving without being able to get it.”
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Finally! I had done it! There was no more room for doubt and tension. There was no room for the claims of a State Department. Those tears broke the spell. That resignation eventually became his ID. Messi experienced “a good failure, complete, intense frustration, worthy of infinite sorrow” that night. From that end no one else doubted his argentinaity anymore.
Source: Goal