Messi and Spain come full circle
The upcoming World Cup final features a symbolic clash between veteran Lionel Messi and rising star Lamine Yamal, both of whom have deep ties to Spanish football. The match highlights the contrast between Argentina's gritty, combative style and Spain's technical, possession-based approach.
Sixteen years ago, when Spain won its first World Cup, the team had the world mesmerised by a buttery-smooth passing game — a style that had never won the trophy before. Engineered to perfection in FC Barcelona’s hallowed La Masia academy, tiki-taka football reached its pinnacle when Andrés Iniesta scored the winning goal in the 2010 final. Watching from afar, and rejoicing for his clubmates, was Lionel Messi. For years afterwards, many wondered how things might have been had La Masia’s finest turned out for the country he had made his home since his early teens, rather than the one of his birth. Messi did have the choice to play for Spain before he made his Argentina debut in 2005. He turned it down, and the weight of the South American nation grew heavier on his shoulders with every passing year that success at the international level eluded him. The spectre of Diego Maradona loomed, and Messi was always the prince, never the king.
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