So strange was this 2020 that Lionel messi He ended up finding his space as a soccer refugee precisely in the place that almost always seemed inhospitable to him. And yes, once what was already insinuated as impossible happened: the Argentina Selection gave the genius peace. First, he contained it. Then together they started walking straight towards Qatar 2022, towards the fifth World Cup of the best player in the world.
Atypical was also the celestial and white year for Messi. Due to the pandemic, the calendar was brutally modified. Then the Playoffs that were to start in March started in October. It was only there that Leo put on the National Team shirt for the first time in 2020. And it was a special moment.
At his first selected game of the year, at the beginning of the Playoffs, the 10th arrived beaten perhaps like never before in his career. They were too fresh the historical stumble with Bayern Munich for the Champions League and the famous burofax. It seemed that in those days there was no possible happiness for Messi linked with the ball.
However, Leo He landed in Buenos Aires, settled in the AFA complex located in Ezeiza and breathed the air he needed. I did not expect an ostentatious, comfortable, easy Selection. It was an Argentina that had to confirm the positive signs of extensive renewal faced after the role in the World Cup in Russia.
Coach, Lionel scaloni, purely naturally, he put together a group so that Messi will be inserted without problems. Always with a premise that was almost never fulfilled in the Selection: that they treat him as one more. Among many young people, Leo felt comfortable in a new Argentina. The most daring in coexistence, Rodrigo
From Paul and Leandro Paredes, what if they contributed in a picture that of the historical ones only kept Nicolas Otamendi, to Angel Di Maria already Sergio Aguero, although Fideo and Kun were not in several citations for various reasons
There was in the field a search for the Selection aimed at offering Leo various download options ahead, knowing that dependence on such a genius is inevitable, but trying to minimize it as much as possible. In this context, footballers emerged who at different times during the matches established interesting dialogues with 10: by the bands, Lucas Ocampos and Nicolas Gonzalez; as a center forward, Lautaro Martinez; as accomplices in the organization, Leandro Paredes, Giovani lo celso, Exequiel Palacios…
Finally, at the beginning of October, after almost a year, the National Team opened its arms to Messi. There were four chapters with a healthy harvest of points (10 out of 12; second position, two units below Brazil), without defeats (3 wins and 1 draw), better outside than at home (he beat Bolivia at the height of La Paz and in Lima to Peru; it cost him more in the Bombonera with Ecuador and Paraguay), with growth in the game and with Leo key especially in those two away victories. All without conflict.
The celestial and white confirmations will be captured at the end of March, in two decisive classics: the 25 with Uruguay in the Bombonera and 30 in front of Brazil visitor. There it will be known with certainty in what situation this new Argentina is found. That will be another story. The clear thing is that in this traumatic 2020 what had never happened happened. Far from resigning after the America's Cup in the United States, with the wound of the World Cup in Russia healing, at 33, Messi He found in the National Team the peace that Barcelona lacked.