"Leo Messi is more concerned with winning game 1,001, 1,002 and 1,003 than celebrating his 1,000th birthday."
Those who know the captain of Argentina, a current player for Paris Saint Germain and a former Barcelona soccer player, agree that the man from Rosario has always been so ambitious and competitive that he "thinks ahead" and therefore hardly stops to notice his resume, nor what he will add their 1,000 match against Australia (today, at 8:00 p.m., World Goal), probably because it does not count and it is a well-known challenge that will be met in the round of 16 of the World Cup in Qatar.
“He is used to finding out everything;
It is difficult for him to miss something: either he knows it or they tell him ”, insists one of the professionals who take care of the figure of 10.
Messi's records help to update the history of football because he gives life to the most legendary figures and encourages contemporaries to dispute the most improbable records as evidenced in his duel with Cristiano Ronaldo.
From the Pichichis (eight) and Golden Boots (six) of the Argentine, it has been known who was Paulino Alcántara, César, Zarra, Kubala or naturally Gerd Müller.
It has also been necessary to recover the list of winners of the Ballon d'Or and therefore the work of Best, Zidane, Platini, Van Basten, Eusebio or Luis Suárez Miramontes because nobody achieved seven like 10. The same goes for the titles and a career that forces watch the album and the videos of Pelé, Di Stéfano, Cruyff and Maradona to compare and deduce if Messi is number one.
Although it will be difficult for him to metabolize the game of the five best footballers of all time, Messi seems to have no end to his 35 years after adding one more World Cup game than Maradona (22 vs. 21) and the same goals (eight) as him.
Up to five clubs have speculated on his possible signing for next season, even though the highest bidder is PSG.
Some data ensures that 60% of the shirts that the French club has sold were from Messi.
Ten new contracts have also been signed in the offices of the Paris club since the arrival of the 10. The Argentine is a machine for generating money and of course for generating football, lately becoming a classic 10, after starting as a winger and more late be a false nine.
Messi has not stopped reinventing himself since he learned to read the game and have a sense of team at Barça.
That soloist who haggled in his shadow when he arrived at La Masia, he also deciphered the secret of the pass as a football thread and became a genius as professional as he was effective in Barcelona, Paris and Argentina.
Often, the numbers ensure that he is the one who runs the least, the one who sprints the least and sometimes also the one who participates the least, but he is also the one who is everywhere because it is the others who move and go to meet him, always pending of his body language forged in Rosario.
Short touches alternate with changes of direction and free kicks, more reliable than their penalty kicks as seen against Poland.
The seemingly simplest fate turns out to be the most complicated for a footballer whose career has been conditioned by the episodes he experienced with some of his coaches at Barcelona.
Rexach signed his transfer on a napkin when the Barça club took a long time to formalize his contract;
Capello called him "a little devil" in a Gamper when Barcelona fans were still in love with Ronaldinho;
Mourinho got mad and sent the Catalans to the theater the day the Barca striker conquered Stamford Bridge;
Guardiola found him the best place so that he could conquer the world;
and Luis Enrique convinced him that he could form a fabled trident with Luis Suárez and Neymar, a trio that now repeats in Paris with Neymar and Mbappé.
"Leo doesn't get tired and people don't get tired of Leo," concludes Rexach.
He never tires of giving assists, of scoring the same goal in every game, of winning titles and of reaching record figures like those of the thousand games, which he will reach in Qatar.
He has unreservedly accepted Cruyff's warning during his maturity: "If you have the possibility of being the best in each game, you also have to know that you are risking your prestige in each game."
Messi is active every day, he demands himself in simple matches and in complicated ones, he does not look back or take stock, to the point that no one dares to venture what he will experience during and after the World Cup.
Now is surely the best time to continue taking a walk through football at the hands of Messi.
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