Argentina is girding itself for the once-unimaginable prospect of a national team without soccer great Lionel Messi.
asserted
Argentina → gird → Messi
On Tuesday, the 39-year-old Messi is set to bid farewell to international soccer after 21 years, 125 goals, two Copa América titles and a World Cup championship.
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Messi → set → years
What would otherwise be an unremarkable friendly match against the West African nation of Benin has become the moment that this soccer-crazed country has long dreaded.
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country → become → that
“It feels like an era is ending, knowing he won’t play for the national team anymore,” said Valentino Ruso, 17, who was hanging out with friends in a Buenos Aires park on Tuesday.
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who → feel → Tuesday
“I’m sad.
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I → ’m → ?
I think everyone is upset today.
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everyone → think → ?
He will be missed.”
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He → miss → ?
Argentines have had an intense, often unforgiving relationship with the shy boy who left his hometown of Rosario at 13 for the youth academy of Spanish club Barcelona.
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who → have → Barcelona
As he grew into a global icon of near-mythical stature, his compatriots adored and abused him, doubted his commitment and accused him of indifference to his own country.
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compatriots → grow → country
But as he prepares to say goodbye to the national team, his devotion to Argentina is no longer in question.
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devotion → prepare → question
Nor is Argentina’s devotion to its most famous export whose triumphs have served as reminders of national greatness through years of political and economic instability.
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triumphs → serve → instability
“Argentines often say, ‘Thank God I was born at a time when I could experience the miracle of watching Messi play,’” said Andrés Rabinovich, a University of Chicago scholar who has researched soccer’s role in Argentine culture.
uncertain
who → say → culture
“It’s hard living in Argentina.
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It → ’ → Argentina
Soccer is often one of the few things that offer you some respite, some joy.”
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that → offer → respite
For years, Argentines had debated when and how Messi should leave the international stage — though he’ll continue to play for MLS team Inter Miami.
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he → debate → team
His Aug. 31 announcement that he’d be retiring from the national team, weeks after Argentina’s loss to Spain in the World Cup final, prompted an outpouring of gratitude and grief.
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he → retire → gratitude
“I don’t know if there has ever been a love story between a player and a country as great as the one you built,” his teammate Rodrigo De Paul wrote on Instagram.
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teammate → know → Instagram
The Argentine soccer federation has turned Tuesday’s game — Messi’s 208th — into a national homage dubbed “the last tango.”
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federation → turn → homage
Some 85,000 tickets to Buenos Aires’ largest stadium sold out in 90 minutes, and members of Argentina’s 2022 World Cup-winning squad and their families were invited back to join the tribute.
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members → sell → tribute
Winning over his own
During the 2000s and 2010s, Messi amassed trophies with his club and won diehard fans from Barcelona to Bangladesh.
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Messi → win → Bangladesh
Yet a major championship for his own country eluded him.
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championship → elude → him
Where the world saw a supernatural talent, some at home saw an outsider who had never played professionally in Argentina and could not deliver when it mattered most to the nation.
uncertain
it → see → nation
Argentine crowds chanted “Diego, Diego,” invoking Diego Maradona, the larger-than-life hero of Argentina’s 1986 World Cup victory — and reminding Messi of the standard he had yet to meet.
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he → chant → standard
Messi’s quiet reserve, so at odds with Maradona’s defiant swagger, fueled doubts about his patriotism.
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reserve → fuel → patriotism
“There’s some resentment by the people that stay in Argentina for those who leave, this sense of, ‘They think they’re better than us,’” said Rabinovich, adding that he identifies with Messi as a fellow teenage migrant, having moved to Canada during Argentina’s 2001 economic crisis, around the time Messi left for Europe.
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Messi → ’ → Europe
“The old-school Argentines would say, ‘Diego is the Argentine.
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Diego → say → ?
The turning point came in 2021, when Argentina beat Brazil to win the Copa América, South America’s championship, for the first time in 28 years.
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Argentina → come → years
Messi collapsed to the turf as his teammates, delirious, ran to hug him.
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teammates → collapse → him
The player long accused of feeling too little could not stop sobbing.
uncertain
player → accuse → ?
“Winning clearly disarmed his critics.
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Winning → disarm → critics
That’s how soccer works in Argentina,” said Diego Murzi, a sports sociologist at Conicet, Argentina’s national scientific research council.
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Murzi → ’ → Conicet
“Criticism of things off the field goes hand in hand with defeats on it.”
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Criticism → go → it
The World Cup victory the following year in Qatar sealed his place as a national hero.
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victory → seal → hero
Messi had delivered the one prize that had eluded him, and millions of Argentines poured into the streets in collective ecstasy, his name in their chants and his No. 10 on their backs.
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No → deliver → backs
“I’ll never forget it.
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I → forget → it
I’d never experienced anything like that, being out there with everyone, celebrating together,” said Antonia Correa, 70, a kiosk owner recalling that day as she waited for a bus in Buenos Aires on Tuesday.
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she → experience → Tuesday
“We saw that he wasn’t just an extraordinary player, but an excellent human being.
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he → see → ?
In recent weeks, newspapers have hummed with nostalgic tributes and murals celebrating Messi have sprung up across the country.
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murals → hum → country
La Nación, a leading Argentine daily newspaper, released “Immortal,” a documentary chronicling his final World Cup run, and published a 196-page special edition devoted to his career.
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Nación → lead → career
A giant replica of his No. 10 Argentina jersey, emblazoned with the word “Gracias,” was unfurled Monday across a main plaza in his home city of Rosario.
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replica → emblazon → Rosario
…and 10 more, not listed.
The Aporia
