Dhe unforgettable Hollywood star and amateur boxer Anthony Quinn used to fight aging with the claim: “Even as a 60-year-old you can still be 40, at least half an hour a day.”
How is it with football? We’ve known the answer since Saturday, thanks to Lionel Messi: Even as a 33-year-old, you can still be 20 for half an hour – but at least for three magical moments.
In the game of FC Barcelona against SSC Napoli, the 23rd minute ran as the Argentine turned into the penalty area from the right with the ball skin-tight on his left foot, as always. He hooked his hook like a rabbit, and the heroic ballad by Ludwig Uhland spontaneously came to mind: “On the right you can see half a Turk sinking down on the left.”
In that case it was Neapolitans, first three and then four. Messi also made the fifth stumble, stumble and stumble elegantly, but still he didn’t really have the slightest chance, because he was surrounded by the enemy superiority and at some point he fell himself.
Gone, everyone thought. But Messi remains Messi even if he falls. He wants the goal, and even when he falls he is still better than anyone who stands. As a sit-down footballer, he quickly threw the ball into the far corner, untenable and inimitable. “The world heavyweight champion is God’s big toe,” wrote Norman Mailer (“The Naked and the Dead”). God’s other big toe is Messi, at 33.
Children’s birthdays and company anniversaries
The tricky age for footballers begins at 30, and for some even earlier. Our German ex-world champion André Schürrle recently sawed his legs open, counted his annual rings and found that he is only suitable as a star guest for children’s birthdays and company anniversaries, he will probably shoot a goal wall at garden parties soon. From the age of 30 life begins to process, and many thought that Messi was no longer to be feared by the opponents.
Occasionally but still. The little magician treats himself to his magical moments for as long as possible, to the delight of all football fans. Diego Maradona, his predecessor on the throne, said it best: “Watching Messi play is better than sex.”
These are wonderful moments for the aesthetes. Your fear of a life after Messi is great, but possibly also Bayern’s fear of next Friday.
Messi’s moments have become rarer, but still a nightmare for the opponents, and Jérôme Boateng is likely to look under the bed before bed for the next few days. A few years ago, in a duel in Barcelona, he ran into the genius in the open Messi, the Argentine turned the giant of Bayern with his zigzag on the wrong leg so quickly that it fell over like a sawed-off lamppost. While the ball hit the goal, Boateng lay flat like a flounder in the grass.
The duped responded to the subsequent malice in the global network with a photo of Marlon Brando from “The Godfather” and tweeted his bitter wisdom: “The haters roar at your mistakes, but they only have a whisper for your success.” Messi can defend himself turn their heads while dribbling so that they become philosophers.
A nightmare on two legs: Messi (left) outsmarts Jerome Boateng. In the 2015 semi-final first leg, Barcelona won 3-0, also with two goals from Messi
Quelle: picture alliance / ZUMAPRESS.com
Even in his late phase he is still able to do this, as on Saturday. Seven minutes after his magic goal he met again, this time with the hand of God like Maradona once did, only the video evidence is now spoiling the game. Messi was briefly annoyed and rested, but in the 45th minute he was again good enough to force the penalty to make it 3-0. He was kicked in the calf, lay there in pain for minutes, and Barcelona’s doctor leaned over him worriedly, as if to say: “We won’t know more details until after the autopsy.”
Even if 90,000 Catalans had been at the Camp Nou stadium, they would have fallen silent in shock to the ghostly atmosphere. “We will have to treat Messi,” coach Quique Setién has since said courage, “but he will play against Bayern.”
Heesters and Heino
Messi has to. You need him. “We were a bad team this season,” he said recently. Barcelona is no longer the old Barcelona. Which is also because Messi is no longer the young Messi.
But he’s still Messi.
You can always trust old cannons to do everything in good moments, this has been proven many times in sport, show and culture. Jopi Heesters let himself be carried on stage at 108, the hit bard Heino announced on his 70th birthday in “Bild” that he was still nibbling his wife hard (“Three times sex a week – without Viagra!”), Charlie Chaplin In his elderly age, he heroically fathered offspring, and Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel with great skill.
So why shouldn’t Messi still be capable of some brushstrokes at 33? Allegedly he still starts every day with 20 push-ups on one arm and three hard-boiled eggs in tomato juice.
Lionel Messi played against Napoli according to the motto: “My best time may be over – but now the good one is coming.” FC Bayern can only hope that it will not show up on Friday.
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