Those that are in the ” Lionel Messi is the G.O.A.T.” camp certainly have lots of numbers, facts and figures to back up their assertions. But perhaps the best testament to Leo’s greatness is just valuable he becomes to every team that he plays for. Inter Miami CF head coach Javier Mascherano was very straight-forward about it all.
“Teams have been dependent on Messi,” Mascherano said during a news conference on Friday.
“(Pep) Guardiola’s Barcelona was dependent for years, Luis Enrique’s Barcelona, Valverde’s Barcelona, and the Argentina national team for 15 or 20 years.”
“In other words, when you have a player like Messi, you’re clearly going to develop a dependency on him. It’s impossible not to depend on him.
“It’s clear that there are days when the team perhaps helps him more and other days when it helps him less.”
Typically, most sports press conferences consist of nothing but coachspeak and platitudes, but Mascherano isn’t most head coaches. Sometimes he just tells it like it is, with no filter.
On April 13, Inter Miami came to Chicago, and battled the Fire to a goalless draw. The match broke the Fire’s all-time single game attendance record.
Mascherano, as quoted in RG.org, put it bluntly: “The people came to see him, that’s the reality.”
Mascherano’s counterpart on the opposite touchline that day was Gregg Berhalter, who analogized a Lionel Messi set piece to a penalty kick from a normal player — a goal is extremely likely.
“Those two free kicks that he has — you’re holding your breath because it almost feels like a penalty kick,” Berhalter said to the assembled media that day.
“When he gets those opportunities, it’s like, this is a goal.”
So how do you go about trying to stop Leo Messi?
Well, let’s flash back to the 2022 World Cup quarterfinals. Netherlands manager Louis can Gaal was asked about what his plan was to try and stop Argentina talisman Lionel Messi the next day.
“We’re not going to reveal our tactics to you as that’d be stupid to reveal,” Van Gaal said in response.
“You want to block and close the pass lines [to Messi]. I don’t think there’s too much hoo-hah about this.”
Van Gaal was right- there was no reason for him to reveal any kind of tactics ahead of the big World Cup quarterfinal match tomorrow.
Ditto for any coach, in any sport, whenever this type question comes up.
The reporters are just doing their job, and the coaches are just protecting theirs. But this all just goes to show you how and why every team that has Lionel Messi eventually becomes overly dependent on him.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America and RG. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter.
