‘Leo surpassed Diego’: after twenty years Argentina welcomed Messi | In Argentina

Iit’s time to send Diego Maradona’s Hand of God to the museum section. 40 years then and Maradona’s unforgettable “goal of the century” colored the soul and passion of Argentine football. Today things are very different, and the main reason is Lionel Messi. Relying on the memory of Maradona, Messi is creating a new Argentina.

A stunning 2–1 semi-final victory over England showed a rejuvenated Argentina heading into Sunday’s final against Spain relying on a simple, powerful weapon: excellent football.

“In English football, this hurts more than the Hand of God,” said Tomás Abraham. He devoted his life to writing, studying philosophy and analyzing society and the human condition, although his greatest passion lies elsewhere: football.

At the age of 79, Abraham organizes his daily schedule around the Champions League and Premier League matches, which he follows from his spacious apartment in Colegiales – a popular area in Buenos Aires – or from his book-filled office, where he shuts himself away for hours to write.

“The British consider the Hand of God to be illegal, a fraud,” said Abraham. “And this hurts them a lot because they lost to a high-level team that they were determined to beat. The wound is getting deeper.”

For years, a large part of the Argentine population looked down on Messi, clinging to the legend of Maradona. Messi would not be Messi; he had to be Maradona. While the rest of the world dreamed of having their own Messi, a surprising number of Argentines continued to say that he would melt like a lump of sugar in a cup of tea when he faced several tough defenders in the Copa Libertadores.

That is why Messi’s greatest triumph is that he stopped being seen through the prism of Maradona and gained the recognition – and unanimous love – of his people.

Maradona was more than a soccer player; and he was the essence of Argentinidad, or at least some kind of Argentinidad. For a long time, it was impossible to understand Maradona without first understanding Argentina, but there came a point when it was difficult to understand Argentina without first understanding Maradona, so the two were united and the same.

Maradona embodied a bright and proud Argentina, Argentina convinced of its destiny as a superpower. That is also why Maradona felt the right to express his opinion and pass judgment on everything: on George Bush and the pope, on Fifa, on his idols Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez. He can say one thing and the opposite, love and hate the same person after a few months.

A multi-talented and often kind-hearted man, Maradona had the ability to insult, hurt, attack and provoke. In the end, he resembled his country very closely, with its great lights and inevitable shadows.

As a product of a good state education, Maradona was a man who understood the meaning and weight of every word. He had a gift for self-expression, despite being born and brought up in very humble circumstances.

Messi, who is a naive Argentinian child, does not have that talent; his vocabulary is limited, his sentences are short and lack depth, although he has improved significantly in recent years. This is how he feels comfortable, and this is how he established a different kind of Argentine football identity (and Argentine identity).

Carlos Mac Allister played alongside Maradona for Argentina. He is the father of Alexis Mac Allister. He has been in the US for weeks watching his son in the World Cup and will be in the finals.

“The difference between Diego and Leo is their private life,” he said. “And that’s not to talk bad about Diego. I won’t explain what he himself has said. Because Diego is Diego, Messi is Messi today. By understanding what happened, Messi was able to find a way to take the game to the next level.”

Another explanation for why the Hand of God is in the symbolic museum lies in the investigation that wants to find out why Maradona died on November 25, 2020 and whether his death could have been prevented. The investigation wasn’t front-page news here, and it didn’t spark sustained public interest. It was as if the people of Argentina, ashamed of the difficult circumstances in which Maradona died, chose to turn the page in a subtle manner. And what better way to do that than by hugging Messi?

After the win over England, Messi had some emotional words for Maradona, who had criticized his lack of leadership: “I’m sure Diego is enjoying this from the top. Let him enjoy it, because it’s a gift for him too.”

Staying in the Hand of God is almost an investigation into the history of football, to talk about something that no longer knows, as columnist Héctor Gambini said in Clarín, Argentina’s most widely read newspaper.

“None of the players who participated in this match between Argentina and England were born when Maradona scored his immortal goals,” he wrote. “Goals that VAR could have disallowed: the first was a handball from the Blues’ number 10. [Sergio Batista] at number 4 for White [Glenn Hoddle]following which Argentina got another goal, the ball ended up at Maradona’s feet, and after 13 seconds it entered the English net.”

Mariano Israelt, one of Maradona’s best friends, says that Maradona is no longer 1. “Diego was the greatest … to a point. But Messi has surpassed him; what Messi has achieved is incomparable. Diego played for a team like Napoli, which was 10 donkeys and Diego. Messi played for a Barcelona team surrounded by Diego.

Israel criticizes England’s performance in their 1986 return to the 1966 World Cup final. “An Englishman has no right to say that Maradona scored a goal with his hand or cheated, because the only competition they ever won, they won with a goal that was not a goal.”

What can we expect from the finale? Abraham is not looking good for the European champions. “They ignore everything we have contributed to Spanish football: Alfredo Di Stéfano and Lionel Messi,” he said.

Argentina has enriched Spanish football, and Spanish clubs have helped Argentine players to develop. The list of Argentine players who have played and managed in Spain is confusing: Di Stéfano and Messi, yes, but also Mario Kempes, Maradona, César Luis Menotti, Carlos Bilardo, Lionel Scaloni. The country’s top players and managers. And thousands more.

Mac Allister highlights that Argentina is no longer only Messi, as it was at the beginning of the World Cup. The group has woken up. “I see a team from Argentina that has been playing at 60% of its capacity, but played at 90% against England,” said Mac Allister. “When we face Spain, we will need to play at 100%. One thing is clear: we played with heart and soul, but we lacked a bit. Not anymore – Argentina dominated England.”

Or, as Uruguayan journalist Emiliano Hernández Pereyra puts it, fed up with many of his countrymen – frustrated after a very poor World Cup – criticizing neighboring Argentina: Argentina makes them jealous.

“These guys have everything I want for my country, but there are a lot of stubborn Uruguayans. Do you think Argentina is just lucky? Please… They are an unusual team; they have something that no other team has.”