The Argentines Ángel Di María and Lionel Messi, after the match between Saudi Arabia and Argentina, in Doha, Qatar.ANTONIN THUILLIER (AFP)
Dear Martin:
It's a bit of anguish: I was thinking of consoling you for the crisis in Argentina, but after reading you, you'll have to console me.
Your letter has plunged me into a convincing depression.
Compared to you, Pessoa is euphoric.
The worst thing is that you are right.
The Saudi-orchestrated assassination of Khashoggi could not have been more heinous.
And you add a piece of information that makes stories unforgettable: the journalist risked his life by looking for papers at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to marry for the fourth time.
According to Dr. Johnson, remarriage reveals the triumph of hope over experience.
Threatened with death, Khashoggi was a professional hopeful.
His body divided into two suitcases was an intolerable affront to freedom of expression and optimism in love.
The Saudi Arabian players are not responsible for the executions in their country (nor was Menotti's Argentina responsible in 1978 for the torture that was committed at ESMA, not far from the stadium), but it is outrageous that the oil and the blood capitalize on that triumph and now hire someone who was born to be seen as the best child in Rosario.
It is not the first time that Leo skids off the field.
He was the most famous tax evader in Barcelona and he only avoided jail because with a 21-month sentence he reached bail (with two more, he would have made his small area plays in a cell).
La Pulga has the excuse that he doesn't know anything: other people control his destiny.
However, this version of the genius as a puppet contrasts with what his friends say about him and what can be seen in documentaries.
Before Argentina's final against Brazil, in the last Copa América, Scaloni made a very personal decision: he walked away from the dressing room and let number 10 launch the harangue.
Messi did not reach the rhetoric that we attribute to your namesake San Martín, but he spoke intensely about the 45 days away from the families, the dashed hopes (his was the worst: four finals lost before that one), the illusion of reversing the destiny.
Di María is an easy tear, but even Papu Gómez was moved by the speech.
Someone who talks like that cannot ignore that there are taxes;
either,
Until yesterday, Mexicans, always contradictory, wanted to beat Argentina and keep Messi in the World Cup.
Deep down, we were willing to offer our best strategy in battles: the heroic sacrifice so as not to eliminate Messi.
The immolation might be worth it;
the corpses of the selection would not only be the food of the vultures, but of the Latin American unit.
Long live Simón Bolívar, sons of bitches!
But everything has changed: we will play against the figure who promotes the 2030 World Cup for Saudi Arabia.
And you already said the worst: Cristiano rejected the same offer.
Madeira's Adonis, who plays to see himself in the mirror, is giving surprises.
We knew about his broken childhood, the psychological demolition of his father in the war in Angola and his subsequent alcoholism, but that did not finish singling him out;
after all, tragedy is the hero's diet.
Shooting at the angle requires suffering.
The strange thing happened recently.
If Gandhi shook the foundations of the British empire with a handful of salt, Cristiano did it with a Coca-Cola bottle.
On the 7th of Portugal he withdrew the soft drink at a press conference and recommended drinking water.
With that gesture, the company lost 4,000 million dollars in the stock market.
Later, CR7 assumed a unique behavior on the soccer planet: he confessed to being depressed.
He corresponded to the country of Pessoa (which he imagined "a Sunday backwards", "a holiday spent in the abyss"), inaugurating melancholy on the pitch.
Cristiano shaves himself with such perfection that it is hard to attribute an interior life to him;
Yet at 37 he broke the most original record of his career: he accepted being vulnerable.
The death of a son who was about to be born devastated him and removed previous turbulence.
Manchester United immediately wanted him on the pitch, but he exercised the rights of a sad man.
He arrived in Qatar without having played enough, but against Ghana he became the first player to score in five World Cups.
That sporting achievement was also a moral triumph.
Our passions have taken a somersault.
While the beloved Messi signs contracts as if he thought with his left foot, Cristiano provides an example.
The boycott of Saudi Arabia 2030 begins on Saturday and the force of reason is called Mexico.
Am I exaggerating?
Of course yes!
Let no one blame me for objectivity when watching that game.
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