Monday, Jul 14, 2014
Dubai: Before we all cry conspiracy over the decision to award Argentina forward Lionel Messi the adidas Golden Ball for the 2014 World Cup, let’s just remember one simple fact — he got the most man of the match awards during the tournament.
While he may have failed to show up in the later stages of the competition, this award is about consistency across all seven matches. And, after winning four consecutive man of the match awards for his performances against Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iran, Nigeria and Switzerland (one more than next-placed Arjen Robben of the Netherlands, Colombia’s James Rodriguez and Costa Rican goalkeeper Keylor Navas) his eligibility for the honour, statistically, can’t be questioned.
It’s not as though you can pick holes in these four individual awards either. Messi scored the winning goals against Bosnia and Iran and scored two against Nigeria, before assisting the winner against Switzerland.
Other nominations for the Golden Ball from a shortlist of ten included fellow Argentinians Angel Di Maria and Javier Mascherano, Germany’s Mats Hummels, Toni Kroos, Philip Lahm and Thomas Mueller, Brazil’s Neymar, Robben and Rodriguez.
However awkward Messi looked upon receiving the award and however much other candidates may have seemed more deserving of the accolade, for the panel to have snubbed Messi would have been equally shocking.
If Messi is guilty of anything, it’s a failure to rise to the occasion and prove his critics wrong on football’s greatest stage. And for someone who is continually in the shadow of Argentinian 1986 World Cup winning legend Diego Maradona, he did little to change that against bigger opposition in what was essentially his best chance.
Messi will be 31 years old by the time the next World Cup comes around and, despite having more records, titles and a better strike ratio than Maradona ever had at both domestic and international level, Maradona still has something Messi might never have: a World Cup winner’s medal.
Maradona’s greatness was in his ability to carry an average team to that accolade, but even with a greater support act than his predecessor, Messi missed the opportunity to be held in as high esteem.
Messi will — of course — still go down as a legend, even if the Maradona comparison continues to haunt him. But perhaps it is time to finally accept the “Atomic Flea” for what he has achieved instead of always expecting more. Sometimes you just lose and the margin of failure on Sunday was slim.
Demonising him for failing to take this chance is one thing, but that shouldn’t be confused with his deservedness for the golden ball. For his performances over the course of the tournament he was, statistically, unrivalled.
By Ashley Hammond Staff Reporter
Gulf News 2014. All rights reserved.
