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LIONEL MESSI: WORLD’S GREATEST PLAYER
Lionel Messi, 35, is an Argentine professional football player who plays for and captains the Argentine national team for years and is often considered as one of the greatest players in the world.
Born in Rosario, Argentina, joined FC Barcelona in 2000 at 13 and after 21 years in FC Barcelona, in 2020, he left the club he loved to join FC Paris St Germain, a top French team.
How great is Lionel Messi?
Lionel Messi appeared in 172 international and 5 World Cup games and scored 96 international and 13 World Cup goals for the country he loves: Argentina.
He joined Barcelona’s youth club at 13, spent much of his professional career at the Spanish club as an all-time top scorer and appearances with 672 goals in 778 games.
Lionel Messi now joined French side PSG on a two-year contract in 2021 where scored 23 goals and recorded 29 assists in 53 appearances for the French club which won the Ligue 1 title and the French Super Cup in July 2022.
He won 7 Ballon d’Or awards, a record, 1 FIFA World Player of the Year, 1 Best FIFA Men’s Player, 6 European Golden Shoe, 2 FIFA Club World Cup Golden Ball, 1 Laureus World Sportsman of the Year and 14 Argentine Footballer of the Year.
Is Lionel Messi a charitable person?
Lionel Messi has been involved in charitable efforts aimed at children with medical needs and contributed funds to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), since 2004.
His charitable organization, the Leo Messi Foundation, since 2007, awarded grants and investments to medical centres and donated US$1.2 million for clinics in Spain and his native Argentina.
Lionel Messi is well-known for financially and morally support youth football in Argentina especially his boyhood football clubs FC Samiento, FC River Plate and FC Boca Juniors.
Why are footballers super millionaires?
Football is a money-making machine and according to Forbes, the top 5 super rich are Kylian Mbappe (PSG and France) USD128m, Lionel Messi (PSG and Argentina) USD120m, Christiano Ronaldo (MU and Portugal) USD100m, Neymar (PSG and Brazil) USD87m and Mohamad Salah (Liverpool and Egypt) USD60m.
Which clubs are the richest in the world?
Football is the most popular sport on Earth with 3.5 billion fans and the sport is a lucrative business as the 2018 FIFA World Cup generated more than US$4.6 billion in revenue.
The Deloitte 2020 ranking shows the top 10 richest football clubs in the world are Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Paris St Germain and Spurs and all are European clubs.
Who owns the rich European clubs?
Many European clubs are interestingly owned by non European such Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool (USA), Chelsea (Russia), Everton (Iran), Leeds (Italy), Southampton and Wolverhampton (China), Leicester (Thailand), Manchester City (UAE), Paris St Germain (Qatar), and Newcastle (Saudi Arabia).
Why are South American players top-class strikers?
In the top-10 attacking players in the world, more than half are South American, known for their creative attacking game and love for scoring.
In South America, players who can dribble well, swivel, flick and score goals get the glory on the playgrounds and could become famous in a short span of time.
Many South American players love shooting long distance kicks to the goal and receive applause from spectators and commentators even if the kicks fail.
Most of the continent’s legends are exclusively strikers and attacking midfielders such as Radamel Falcao, Gonzalo Higuain, Luis Suarez, Sergio Aguero, Lionel Messi, Edinson Cavani and Neymar Jr.
Can football be great in Asia?
World’s highest fan base. Former FIFA president, Sepp Blatter was confident that the future of football must be in Asia because half of the world’s population is in Asia.
Low country ranking. The football ranking for Asia is comparatively low as according to FIFA 2020 ranking, Japan is ranked 28, South Korea 39, China 77, Vietnam 92, India 105, Thailand 106, Philippines 125, Malaysia 153, Singapore 159 and Indonesia 173.
More has to be done. With more that 2 billion people, football can be made a lucrative game in Asia and a lot of things have to be done by the governments and business corporations.
Lack of real culture and investment. Many sports analysts say many Asian nations have ‘lack of a real football culture and football standard in Asia is attributed to ‘a chronic under-investment’.
Has Asia world class footballers?
Asia, nevertheless, has no short of world-class footballers such as Yousef Samy (Afghanistan), Feng Xioting (China), Ali Daei (Iran), Younis Mahmoud (Iraq), Bambang Pamungkas (Indonesia), Keisuke Honda (Japan), Mokhtar Dahari (Malaysia), Paulino Alcantara (Philippines), Sami AlJaber (Saudi Arabia), Mahmoud Dahaoud (Syria), Son Heung-Min (South Korea), Fandi Ahmad (Singapore) and Bawkaw Banchamek (Thailand).
Can Asia overtake Europe?
Asia has long overtaken Europe in viewership with the largest fan base than any other continentSwith some 850 million and the continent also exhibits 32 percent of the viewership for the English Premier League.
Football in Asia is also gaining fast momentum especially in China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Malaysia, Qatar, South Korea and Saudi Arabia.
Should the FIFA World Cup be less elitist?
So far the Cup is either European or Latin American as Brazil won 5 as the most successful World Cup team, Italy and Germany won 4 each, Argentina 3 including Qatar World Cup 2022, France and Uruguay won 2 each while England and Spain have won one each.
Can FIFA World Cup 2030 be in ASEAN?
The 2026 23rd FIFA World Cup will be jointly hosted by 16 cities in Canada, Mexico and USA and FIFA should ensure the tournament is less expensive to enable middle income countries like ASEAN nations to jointly hold the prestigious tournament.
How big is Qatar 2022 World Cup?
The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar is the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the first World Cup to be held in the Arab and Muslim world and the second World Cup to be held entirely in Asia after the 2002 World Cup held in South Korea and Japan.
It is participated by teams from 48 nations, costing over USD8 billion as the most expensive World Cup ever and broke all viewership records with more than 5 billion people from all across the globe or 220 million people per day or 62.5% of global population.
The Qatar World Cup also saw the emergence of new teams of World Cup calibre such as Ghana, Japan, Korea, Senegal and specially Morocco as the first Arab and African nation to enter the Cup’s semi final.
The world, football fans and all sport fraternity, congratulate the 2022 host, Qatar, FIFA for the good work and to Argentina, the 2022 World Cup Champion which is the country’s second.
Who are the top scorers at Qatar?
FIFA Qatar World Cup top scorers are: Kylian Mbappe (France) – 8.Lionel Messi (Argentina) – 7, Julian Alvarez (Argentina) – 4, Olivier Giroud (Argentina) – 4, Richarlison (Brazil) – 3, Bukayo Saka (England) – 3, Alvaro Morata (Spain) – 3, Enner Valencia (Ecuador) – 3, Cody Gapko (Netherlands) – 3, Marcus Rashford (England) – 3, and Goncalo Ramos (Portugal) – 3 goals.
Who runs FIFA?
Giovanni Infantino, 52, a Swiss-Italian, a law graduate of Fribourg University of Switzerland who speaks seven languages, is the current FIFA president, since 2018. He dismissed all criticism of Qatar, called it a “hypocrisy” and had promised Qatar 2022 “as the best World Cup in history”.
Why is Lionel Messi leaving?
The next World Cup, regrettably, will be without Lionel Messi who is leaving the world’s premier football tournament, when he will be 39, after more than 2 decades of brilliant participation.
Do we have ‘new’ Messi?
Not to worry as South America has a dozen plus young players of Messi’s calibre that can still shock the continent and the world cup tournaments.
Neymar Jr – a 30-year-old Brazilian gifted striker of FC Paris St Germain is an attraction from top European clubs and well-known for his explosive pace and superb skills;
Kerlon Sauza – a 22-year-old Brazilian of FC InterMilan is player with a trademark of “seal dribble” skill and a winner of South American U-17 Football Championship Best Player award;
Juan Chera – a 15-year-old Brazilian of FC Santos player who had brilliant dribbling abilities and excellent finishing quality is Brazil’s answer for Lionel Messi.
Philippe Cautinho – a 18-year-old Brazilian of FC InterMilan is the brightest prospect and gifted player with explosive pace and combined with brilliant dribbling and passing abilities.
Julián Álvarez – a 22-year old Argentine of Manchester City and the Argentina’s national team nicknamed “The Spider” for his dynamic scoring ability and link-up play.
Eric Lamela – a18-year-old Argentine sensation who played with FC Barcelona and PC River Plate is seen by many as the next Lionel Messi.
Javiar Pastore – a 21-year-old Argentine footballer is regarded as Argentina’s next big star who rose with FC Palermo and is famous as a creative midfielder with good crossing abilities.
Matias Defederico – a 21-year-old Argentine of FC Huracan is labelled the “New Messi” in Argentina and known for superb dribbling quality and ability to break through any defense.
Edwardo Salvio – a 20-year-old Argentine of FC Atletico player is a natural striker who operates on the wings that combines with his lightning pace makes him similar to Lionel Messi.
Diego Buonanotte – a Chilean hailed as the “Next Messi” is a FC River Plate player whois considered as an extremely creative player with good dribbling skills along with an eye for the goal.
Alexis Sanchez – a 22-year old Chilean of FC Udinese who is famous with his ball speed and fantastic dribbling skills and has potential to become a top class player as Lionel Messi.
Nicholas Ledeiro – a 21-year-old Uruguayan wonder-kid of FC Ajax rose fast with great vision and superb dribbling abilities and is often touted as the “’Uruguayan Messi”.
Brian Ruiz – a 25 year old Costa Rican midfielder of FC Twente, who can play comfortably in various roles as a left footed player but likes to play in the right side.
James Rodriguez – a “Colombian Messi” of FC Banfield who has an extremely skillful left foot combined with brilliant skills and lightning pace just like Lionel Messi.
Why are footballers getting political?
Over the years, FIFA has been opposed to players, teams and fans dissatisfied with the global affairs, engaging in protests or having political sloganeering but it seems difficult to draw a line between politics and sport.
Many footballers are never afraid to talk politics such as Mesit Ozil, Pep Guardiola, David Beckham, Romario, Christian Abbiati, Roman Paveluchenco, Paolo de Canio, Javier Zanetti, Socrates, Lilian Thuram, Frank Lampard, Christiano Lucerelli, Brian Clough, George Weah, Pele and not to forget Diego Maradona.
Can football players be President?
Many professional footballers tend to go into coaching or playing golf after retirement but some enter politics and become ministers, prime ministers and even country presidents.
Pelé of FC Santos and FC Cosmos, an all-time top goalscorer with 643 goals from 659 games, became a sports minister of Brazil and later an UNESCO Ambassador..
Diego Maradona, an Argentine, regarded as one of the greatest players and winners of the FIFA’s Player of the 20th Century, had his strong political views on wars and human misery and became a UN Ambassador.
Romario, a Brazilian of FC Barcelona, famous for scoring almost 1000 goals, joined politics and became a member of parliament and then a senator in Brazil.
Gianni Rivera, an Italian of AC Milan also joined politics, became a member of parliament then Italian deputy minister of defense and later as MP for European Parliament.
Kakha Kaladze, a Georgian professional footballer of AC Milan, joined Georgian politics and became deputy prime minister and minister of energy of Georgia.
Albert Gudmunsson is an Icelandic of Rangers, FC Arsenal and AC Milan who became a politician and elected as minister of finance and minister of industry of Iceland.
Moustafa Mansour, an Egyptian of FC Ajly of Egypt and FC Queens Park Rangers of Scotland who later became a cabinet minister in Egypt.
Titi Camara, a Guinean of FC Liverpool and FC West Ham was a coach of the Guineen national team who later became minister of sports of Guinea.
Hose Cavallos, an Ecuadorian, considered by many to be the greatest goalkeeper in history, became the minister of sports in Ecuador.
Viktor Orban of FC Felcsút, the current prime minister of Hungary, since 1998, is Hungarian longest serving prime minister PM and known to watch six football matches a day.
Kaj Leo Johannesen of the Faroe Islands national football team who later became the prime minister of the Faroe Island in 2008 until 2015.
Ahmed Ben Bella, of Olympique de Marseilleand also for IRB Maghnia, was a famous player in the 1930s who became the first president of Algeria.
George Weah, of FC Paris St-Germain, FC AC Milan and FC Monaco, the first African footballer to win the Ballon deOr award, became a senator is now the 25th President of Liberia since 2018.
What’s next for Lionel Messi?
Coaching and managing clubs. Lionel Messi may go coaching and managing clubs somewhere or probably with FC Paris St Germain for many more sessions of professional football.
Running for President. As a proud son of his country, Lionel Messi may one day join politics and run for the post of the President of Argentina.
“Don’t cry for me, Argentina.” – Madonna: American singer, actress.
Abdul Halim Saad is head of Asia Pacific Risk Consultancy, studied politics at LSE and Bradford and taught international politics at Sultan Idris Education University, Proton City, Malaysia. (Article No: 129). **
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
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