Messi and ephemeral happiness: why Argentines desperately seek a leader

In his column this Thursday in

, entitled "Messi and happiness", Héctor Gambini emphasized the mental change that the Rosario man showed to -almost in the epilogue of his career- become world champion, as if a new chip After

with La Albiceleste, his mental health would have allowed him

to reconcile infinite talent with eternal glory.

Before reading the full text of Gambini, the title could trigger

: not the happiness of the soccer player itself, but

that the idol turned leader has provoked in society since the moment he reached the summit in Doha.

Although strictly speaking, one thing is a consequence of the other.

After all, Messi's

is also the happiness -parasitic in a good way-

.

Since 1986, with Maradona in Mexico, a similar sensation was not experienced, later interrupted by the runner-up in Italy, already in times of

.

Since then, the political and economic situation has mixed repeated crises with mirages, personal adventures and excesses of power.

The stands, saturated with hardships and deafness, almost

.

He went from pan-lashing and “que se vaya todos” to paying for the crack show – a fuse for ineptitude – and flirting with supposed prophets of freedom.

Three months ago, the World Cup renewed

.

The balance was that unprecedented explosion of happiness, when the fans took to the streets to thank Scaloni's team for their achievement in Qatar after 36 years of drought.

The excuse of yesterday's friendly with Panama served to once again satisfy that

.

A spin off with tickets sold out in record time, gratitude intact in the streets, audiences from all over the country in Núñez and a promise of a recharged party: the reunion with the heroes on a pitch to lift the Cup again.

Fans in the street before Argentina's first game after the World Cup.

Photo: EFE

It is not easy to be the depositary of

.

And it was noticeable in the rush of the game, from minute one, as if the footballers had wanted to respond with an

so much popular empathy.

In front of them they did not only have the weak combined B of a selection that was already weak, but the obligation to console the festive voracity of the public with the paste of champions.

There is no other way to explain the fact that Argentina took

to open the scoring.

Or that Messi has embedded two free kicks literally in both angles, before getting the ball to reach the net almost at the end of the game.

Between the victory on penalties against France and this return to River, outside the artifice that a football stadium means, reality continued its

: unbridled inflation and growing insecurity, seasoned with recurring power outages as a result of the worst heat waves in the history.

Nothing similar to happiness, in a crescendo of

that for the elixir of Messi and company was a piece of cake this Thursday: he won again by effort.

There is, obviously, an immeasurable distance between Messi and the rest of the Argentines.

Messi really won, because in the end he knew how to manage talent and

.

In Argentina there are - there were and will there be? - other anonymous "Messis", in various disciplines, swinging between the desire for a postponed national consecration and the temptation of exile.

The unknown

is whether, after the widely bastardized leadership of the State, the person who manages to

will emerge from the polls , put the team on his shoulder and in four years give some consistent joy to the pilgrims of the Selection, today condemned to the dose of ephemeral happiness that each goal cry represents.

The only certainty is that in four years there will be another World Cup.

PS

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