So proud of me, Argentina!

December 21, 2022 10:32
Photo: Reuters

Bear with me because it must be the hundredth nice articles you’ve read but it is still the week of Lionel Messi before Jesus takes over for Christmas.

Nothing seems more inspiring than the world’s most popular footballer winning – and actually sleeping with as pictured in his Instagram- the World Cup for Argentina, a country known for hyper-inflation and the legendary footballer Diego Maradona.

But now Messi, who saved the best trophy for last, is taking over with a dramatic win over France on Sunday in the rare winter classic The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

Despite a commanding 70 minute, Argentina had almost lost it in the regular 90 minutes – and again in the last minutes of the extra time – before the divine stepped in for the penalty kick win.

Many believe this is probably the most memorable World Cup final – and one that topped Maradona’s so-called God of Hand’s performance in 1986 when Argentina stole the game from England.

Forget the Times’ annual pick, Messi is simply the Person of the Year.

It is not easy to estimate how many fans the Argentina forward conquered but I suppose half of the world rooted for Argentina because they like Messi to hold the World Cup as what was seen on TV.

Messi is especially popular among female fans because of his cute look and all these sweet stories about marrying his primary school sweetheart Antonela Roccuzzo and that put him way above David Beckham.

To real soccer fans, Messi easily leads Cristiano Ronaldo all the way this year when Ronaldo lost his usual magic in Manchester United and again in Portugal national soccer team.

People just love Messi. Who isn’t moved by his stories?

All these social media posts on how winning world cup has been his childhood dreams, how he stepped up and paid the outstanding salary of Argentina football team staff and how he built the team spirit through BBQ party have been flooding in the past weeks.

Frankly this is not the usual news we would care in football but Messi appears to be the exception.

And yesterday he just made another record in Instagram. A photo of him holding the FIFA World Cup Trophy garnered over 66.6 million likes, a record for Instagram.

He is expected to hit even higher rates given he has a 400 million fan base in Instagram.

Now that should spell the end of the song “Don’t cry for me, Argentina”, widely cited after the football nation dropped its first game to Saudi Arabia last month.

With Messi, the song becomes “So proud of me, Argentina”.

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EJ Insight writer