How Messi’s Dramatic U-Turn Led To World Cup Glory

Right, so we’ve had to hop back in the car.

We’re not even able to watch the penalty.

A fight almost kicked off, the man left and came back with a gun.

I swear, you saw it right?

Yeah.

My name’s Eli Mengem and for the past few years I’ve been traversing Europe, documenting the tales of football clubs and their fanbases who’ve been on the verge of winning something for the first time in a long time...

If not ever.

From Northern Turkey to Southern Spain.

From South West Germany to the Basque country.

I’ve been on a mission to show how important it is that the game has a variety of winners So that we learn about new places.

New people.

New cultures.

And most importantly, new stories.

Then came the 2022 FIFA World Cup Where I knew the exact Once in a Lifetime story I had to tell.

So as the World’s media descended on Qatar to be at the tournament.

COPA90 and I decided to fly 8000 miles in the opposite direction to tell the ultimate story of a football fanbase on the brink of ending a 36 year wait for the biggest prize in sport.

But what we found we found was a story that transcended football.

A story that reached into the very soul of a nation that laid itself bare over two fateful weeks.

a story that etched a struggle for identity in a search for glory that began over two centuries ago.

A story about Lionel Messi.

Argentina.

and 45 million people yearning to reclaim their place in history This is the all angle, on the ground as it happened ultimate account of perhaps the greatest football story of our time How many years have you been covering football?

I’ve been working in football 24 years now.

And how many matches do you think you’ve covered?

2,000? Something like that.

Have you ever seen a footballer like Messi?

No.

Not close.

You know, his level of consistency is astonishing.

But for what? 17, 18 years...

he scored 30 goals a season, got 15, 20 assists a season.

And nobody...

in the entire history of football has had anything like that level.

Born and raised in Argentina’s second city of Rosario the moment Lionel Andrés Messi took to the uneven pitch of his local football club, Grandoli, the game of football changed forever.

And he starts dribbling past everybody and suddenly his brothers realise...

This isn’t normal.

By 7 he’s signed to boyhood club Newell’s Old Boys.

By 13 he’s signed by FC Barcelona.

By 16 he’s already in their first squad and by 21 he’s the star of Pep Guardiola’s legendary side.

They’re the greatest team I’ve ever seen.

And Messi is the best player in the best team I’ve ever seen.

He’s what takes that side and turns it from being very, very, very good to utterly exceptional.

The next decade and a half sees Messi achieve every club and individual award several times over with goals, assists and performances that truly defy belief.

But don’t take my word for it...

Lionel for me is the best.

He’s a one off for me and it was just great to be in the same stadium as him.

But Leo is just a freak.

What he does, it’s unheard of, I mean I never...

I don’t know if you will see that ever again.

Then there’s his stats with the club.

10 La Ligas.

7 Copa Del Reys.

4 Champions Leagues.

3 FIFA club World Cups.

534 goals and 303 assists.

Each and every season Messi seemed to raised the bar to new heights for FC Barcelona.

But, back in Argentina...

things are a bit more complicated.

And Messi is like...

I don’t know....

- Wait you still believe that to this day?

Yes, to this day.

You see for many Argentinians, as happy as they were to see a compatriot at the top of world football again.

The reality was: Whilst he may have won everything at Barca...

When it comes to Argentina despite his record amount of goals and assists for the country, whenever Messi went to a tournament with the national team they came home empty handed.

Messi is like...

having a son that you know can do better.

He can do better.

But he’s not doing it.

There’s this desperate desire for him to pick up from Maradona for him to lead them to glory.

When that doesn’t happen there’s this intense frustration.

Deep inside we love him, but....

he needs to win!

He needs to win, you know.

That’s it.

Of course they’re proud of what he does for Barcelona.

But he’s doing it for Barcelona.

Argentina fans want him to do it for Argentina.

But surely the idea is Messi must lead them to glory and it doesn’t happen.

Firstly, there’s the World Cup heartbreak.

Where in 2006 he only plays a bit part role which sees a quarter final exit.

In 2010, he plays every match but once again they’re out in the quarters.

Then came the 2014 World Cup in Brazil where Messi scores 4 goals, earns player of the tournament and leads Argentina to their first final in 24 years.

But he took you to a World Cup Final!

Yes, but we didn’t win.

And it’s like that for you?

Who remembers the guy who came in second?

I mean it’s ludicrous...

and I suspect most of them know it’s ludicrous but that doesn’t stop the yearning.

And that thing, you know, inside of me even if I know, logically that it’s not OK it’s still there lingering somewhere.

It’s a mix of the way of the Argentinian and so many years of not being able to actually win it.

Sometimes coming really close, like in Brazil.

It was like a dream to come true win it in Brazil at the Maracana stadium.

But I’m willing to say this.

If he would have scored a goal in 2014 and we would have won the World Cup in Brazil...

Everything would be different.

Argentina fans want him to do it for Argentina.

Maradona did it for Argentina.

Why can’t Messi?

If he’s so good, why can’t he do this?

But in speaking to younger Argentinians it’s evident that this isn’t a sentiment shared by all.

The younger generation lives football a very different way.

It’s a globalised generation that sees football in a different way to the older generation.

It was really, really tough on Messi for me.

You don’t think it was justified?

No, not at all..

So the younger generation has never seen Argentina reach the heights in the game and so there is that tension.

I mean I’ve heard stories my whole life...

of my parents talking about: 86 Maradona...

86 Maradona...

and I’ve been fed those stories constantly whilst never, quite, watching it for myself.

How much does your dad tell you about ‘86?

How much do you hear about ‘86?

Yeah, since I was born.

Maybe twice a week he reminds me.

When we drive in the car and there’s not much to talk about...

He tells me: No because in ‘86 we did that! We did this!

The stories that I have I could write it down because they’re always the same.

Well the older generation said: You never saw Argentina reach the heights, you never saw a player like we saw Maradona in his heyday.

Do you think there’s a difference in generation and that older people are stuck in the past and they they’re looking at it with rose tinted glasses?

Yeah, but that’s football, right?

It’s the experience that surround you, that define you.

I like to, it’s a way to, how can I say?

Relive my childhood.

I don’t know.

But I really want to win.

And so with Argentinian media generally populated by people of a similar age and therefore mentality and perhaps even nostalgia.

Messi, despite becoming Argentina’s leading goalscorer became a target for those wanting to relive their childhood.

And no more so was this the case, than at one particular tournament.

I think the really telling moment is 2011.

The Copa America.

In Argentina.

The assumption is on home soil, surely...

Messi can lead us to glory.

But he couldn’t...

And knocked out by Uruguay on penalties Argentina’s home Copa America dream’s over by the quarter finals.

However it’s a group stage draw vs Colombia that’s most remembered.

Yeah so I was there in 2011.

You were there?

I was there.

It was a dour game.

It was such an old squad.

In Sante Fe, so back in his home province.

Messi, was not at his best, at all.

and when the final whistle blew...

The whole stadium, jeered on him, booed him.

I just, genuinely, couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

You could sense that it was against Messi not just against the team.

Argentinians booed Messi?

I can’t even fathom it.

He was not just booed.

He was booed in his own province.

Wow.

Keep in mind, this is peak Messi!

2011 Messi!

Champions League winner!

Ballon D’or!

That final against United!

That’s why people were so angry at him because they were watching Messi at Barcelona winning everything tearing opponents to shreds and they were asking: Why can’t we have that Messi for ourselves?

ELI: What was your reaction when you heard the jeering?

My reaction was...

Damn Barcelona.

It was completely breaking us because we wanted to look like Barcelona, we wanted to train like Barcelona.

We wanted to play like Barcelona.

And we were unable to do that.

We were not Barcelona, we had no Guardiola.

But at the core of the criticism it wasn’t so much about Messi’s skills as it was about something deeper.

I think it was before the Colombia game...

and I went to a wine tasting.

And the women in charge of the vineyard, I was talking to her about football.

And she was saying we should drop Messi and it should be all about Carlos Tevez.

And I was just saying, but...

What do you mean?

Have you seen Messi?

And she was like, no, no...

Tevez has got it here.

And for Argentinians, it’s there that counts the most.

“Pecho Frio” a cold chest.

A bottler.

It’s someone who can’t produce the goods when it matters.

And with that there’s the personality.

You see Pecho Frio is just as much as a critique of the person as it is the performance.

His problem is that he’s not very expressive.

Argentines are expressive.

They’re boisterous, they’re loud.

They cry, they laugh, they shout.

And so seeing Messi, someone who isn’t naturally that extroverted.

They’re two worlds that collide.

His demeanour...

goes against him.

Because he looks very introverted.

Why’s that a problem?

Because we’re not in Sweden man, we’re here.

You’re expected to show your emotions in Argentines.

That’s what Argentines do.

And here...

people like to see tears.

Blood.

Sweat.

Sacrifice.

You just can’t do it. It’s sacrilegious...

You can’t not show your emotions.

We want that.

We like that.

I don’t know why.

But that’s the way it is.

And so even in his body language Messi found himself in the shadow of Maradona.

And do you think because of that, that’s why Argentinians might like Maradona a bit more?

Because he broke the rules?

He was a bit more extroverted?

You see for Argentinians Maradona’s emotional way of being is just as important as anything he did on the pitch.

When they ignored his repeated requests to leave him alone.

Maradona cracked.

And opened fire with an Air Rifle.

But criticism of Messi didn’t stop at his supposed Pecho Frio.

There’s been many criticism of Messi.

What are some of the ones you’ve heard of in the past?

Way too many of them..

He’s more Catalan than Argentine.

He has never played for an Argentinian club.

He walks around the pitch.

But there had been this question mark of how Argentinian does he really feel?

In the sense that he doesn’t feel the Argentine shirt in the same way as...

someone like Carlos Tevez for example.

‘The player of the people’ Does he sing the anthem loudly enough?

Meanwhile, right after leading Argentina to that 2014 World Cup final.

Messi leads Argentina to the Copa America final in 2015 and ‘16.

Yet both times they heartbreakingly lose on penalties.

He’s lost these three finals in successive years and he’s devastated.

He was fed up, he had missed the penalty in the shootout.

You talk to players who were there and apparently Messi in the dressing room is just sitting on the floor between benches just weeping.

And I think he just sort of thought: I can’t take this anymore, I can’t take...

annual disappointment.

And it’s always him who gets blamed.

And he was fed up.

He was over with it. He said:

And he then quit international football.

And that’s when Messi found out how Argentina really feels about him.

They begged for Messi to come back.

People went to the...

went to the streets to ask for Messi to come back.

Yeah, there were people taking to the streets.

It was this constant campaign.

Uniting behind the campaign message ‘No Te Vayas Leo’ or ‘Leo don’t go’ A nationwide campaign began to convince Messi to reconsider.

The “No Te Vayas” campaign was everywhere.

It was on street signs, on banners.

Even in the underground.

And they realise a future without Messi is a worse future.

It makes them less likely to win things.

My brother did.

He actually went onto the streets?

Where? To the Obelisk?

Yeah.

Oh seriously!?! They went to the Obelisk?

To ask for Messi to come back!?!

Yeah...

El Obelisco it's a giant structure in the middle of July 9 Avenue in Buenos Aires.

It became the symbol of Buenos Aires.

It became a symbol, also, of Argentina.

And it’s the place that football fans have chosen to celebrate their own victories.

So I think the fans going to the Obelisco to claim Messi to be back in the national team was a counter culture protest.

And reflecting how much he meant to them in particular it was the reaction of Argentina’s youth that was making the biggest impact.

From handwritten letters.

To emotional outbursts.

It was the generation still waiting for their own ‘86 that were leading the sentiment.

And whether it was the crying children of his homeland or just his sense of Argentinian duty eventually, Messi came round.

But that is the moment when it changes.

So this new Messi was suddenly there.

And it felt like he was more willing to take things by the scruff of the neck, you know?

We received Messi the White.

Like Gandalf, you know?

The new version of Messi.

He had something of a fire burning inside of him.

And so he dyes his hair, he gets more tattoos.

He was red carded in two games for Argentina.

He was squaring up to Gary Medel.

He also refused to receive the runners up medal in the Copa America 2019.

He starts attacking CONMEBOL in public.

But just the fact that Messi could criticise CONMEBOL.

Call them corrupt.

That’s the South American football federation?

There’s a spat with the press, which he’d always been pretty good with the Argentinian press before that.

And the people who wanted Messi to be more like Maradona kind of got their wish, right?

Did you like that?

Yes.

Why? Because he became more Maradonian?

Maybe more Argentinian?

Because he showed he’s not Pecho Frio.

What did he show?

Character.

Strength.

Blood!

He showed that he has blood!

The retirement, and then coming back.

It was almost like it cleared his head.

He’d always been slightly cowed before that.

He’d sort of tried to fit in...

And I think he thought: Oh Actually...

I’ve already retired, I’ve already seen the worst.

So I’m just going to be me.

And as for the absurd idea he didn’t feel Argentinian...

His favourite food is Argentinian.

His favourite films are Argentinian.

His favourite music is Argentinian.

His wife is from Rosario they’ve known each other since they were kids.

His whole extended family is still is in Rosario.

He visits them very frequently as well.

And of course, anybody who listens to Messi, he has still got a very distinctive Argentinian accent.

I mean have you heard him speak?

Have you heard him speak?

He speak with not just an Argentine accent.

But with a Rosarino accent!

But nothing sums up Messi’s love and desire to play for Argentina than the story of how it all began in the first place.

It was 2003 and Messi’s father contacted us in El Grafico.

At the time, Spain were lurking trying to convince him to play for Spain and Messi didn’t consider that as an option.

He wanted to play for Argentina.

The problem is that no one knew him in Argentina yet.

And the father of Messi asked if he could send us some videos so we could see him play and maybe alert or notice the manager of Argentina because he had no direct links to AFA (Argentinian FA).

I remember when we were seeing the videos, these amazing videos that now we know from Youtube or the internet but at the time they were a treasure that we received directly from Jorge Messi.

And of course we had to publish that story make the comparison with Maradona.

And we contacted the national team manager at the time.

And it prevented Spain from convincing Messi to play for them.

This I think sums up how much Messi always wanted to play for Argentina.

And so with a new Messi who evidently appreciates Argentina and an Argentina feeling the same way back a new connection formed.

The connection the players have with the national team at this point is at an all time high.

And so when Argentina crashed out at yet another World Cup this time at Russia 2018 whilst he still faced some backlash the blame starts to shift.

Notably to their erratic manager Jorge Sampaoli.

Argentina were finally realising the problems were far bigger than Messi.

So imagine that between 1969 and 2009 in 40 years, Argentina had nine permanent managers.

And in Messi’s 15 years in the national team he had to deal with the same amount of managers.

When you take into account the fact that since Messi made his Argentina debut no manager has ever completed a World Cup cycle.

What, the four years?

The four years, no manager has ever managed that.

Before it was unthinkable to have a manager for less than 4 years and suddenly we discovered...

Messi discovered that: There could be two managers in one year.

Three managers, in the course of three years.

Two (FA) Presidents, a normalisation committee coming in from FIFA.

And so the Argentinian FA went on the hunt for yet another manager.

So the Argentinian FA have no money and they’re desperately casting around for a cheap option.

The cheapest they find is Sampaoli’s assistant, Lionel Scaloni.

Who in contrast to Sampaoli and previous coaches had no experience in such a role.

It was absolutely crazy to give the national team the top job in Argentine football to someone who had never coached before.

Scaloni had never coached?!?

No he was only an assistant manager.

And it turns out, they get really lucky...

Cause he’s really good.

But it wasn’t just tactically where Scaloni brought a change.

He’s very calm, he’s very laid back...

He’s very humble.

His ego is miniscule.

In direct contrast to the ways of Argentinian football Scaloni takes a new mentality.

And he had this mantra he kept repeating We win, we lose...

nobody dies, it’s fine.

People get too excited about football.

It’s only football.

And that I think is what Argentina needed.

A lot less tension in the dressing room.

A lot less pressure as well.

They have a very, very calm man.

So...

as time went by it became less and less surprising when Argentina started winning games and winning games and winning games because Messi was happier right there.

But then, just as things were clicking into place for Messi and the national team.

There’s sad news coming through from the world of football this evening.

Argentina great Diego Maradona has died at the age of 60.

And so suddenly it’s like...

this is the blackest day in Argentinian history.

There’s people out on the streets weeping.

There is this horrendous grief and this real public mourning.

Argentina’s reaction to losing the man who embodied them was as emotional and chaotic as you’d expect.

The government realise they can’t contain this grief for Maradona so essentially COVID regulations come to an end in Argentina at that moment.

The moment of Maradona’s death.

Realising the gravity of the situation the Argentinian government decree 3 days of national mourning.

And despite being in the height of lockdown Maradona’s coffin is put on display in the presidential palace where tens of thousands of mourners come and pay their respects.

And in a fitting tribute to Maradona and football in the country this brings out the best and worst in people.

Where fans from both sides of the country’s most notorious rivalries unite in their grief.

Whilst riots and protests unfold when others can’t see the wake.

And so again a spiralling Argentina looked for hope in it’s national team.

This time at the 2021 Copa America the first international tournament Argentina would play “post Diego’.

And you have to consider the fact that that Copa America was supposed to be held in Argentina and we were stripped away from it.

With the Copa America moved to Brazil due to Argentina’s inability to cope with the tournament mid pandemic.

Messi and his squad were forced to spend six weeks in isolation to try and finally end Argentina’s trophy drought.

They weren’t located in Brazil, they also had to travel constantly from Argentina to Brazil and back again.

And they couldn’t see their family?

Exactly.

And yet in that adversity I think that’s where Argentina really bond.

It’s where Messi really emerges as this vocal leader.

He became kind of this vocal leader, this motivational leader.

And you keep seeing him on the pitch talking to players in a way he just hadn’t at previous World Cup’s and tournaments.

He’s, he’s a different leader.

And it’s fabulous to watch.

Messi leads Argentina all the way to another final this time against hosts Brazil where pre match shows the leader he’s become.

Yeah, that’s another Maradona moment.

And you also see I think, just how much the Argentinian players wanted to win for him.

Dibu Martinez had said that they weren’t winning a trophy with Messi they were winning for Messi.

And that I think is a very unusual thing for players to be desperate to win an international tournament not just for themselves and for their country but for a specific player.

And so as Argentina followed that speech out on to the pitch and finally won their first trophy in nearly thirty years in what was Messi’s fifth final with the national team.

It was no wonder the focus was on one player.

The best reflection of that you can possibly have is when the final whistle blew Messi drops to his knees...

and every other Argentinian player in that squad, they don’t celebrate for themselves they go and celebrate with Messi.

Finally Messi had brought a trophy back to Argentina.

But for the Argentinian football purists...

Nah Copa Americas don’t count.

I mean the Copa America is clearly a major tournament.

However...

It is not the World Cup.

Obsessed.

Obsessed.

We are obsessed with the World Cup.

The World Cup is an obsession for Argentines.

For Argentinians...

success is the World Cup.

And that’s it.

It’s a country that needs to win a World Cup.

But Messi needs the World Cup.

Messi always said and repeated: That he would exchange all his individual achievements, all his Champions leagues all his countless league titles for it.

And so as the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar approached with Messi now 35 years old.

Ahora O Nunca, now or never.

I mean this is the moment for him to do it.

Because he’s said it several times before he’s not going to have another shot.

This is the last time he will ever try...

to win the World Cup for Argentina.

In Argentina’s first World Cup since Diego Maradona’s passing.

In Argentina’s first World Cup that was played during their summer.

In Argentina’s last World Cup with their, Messi-ah.

It all felt like the perfect time to end the nation’s 36 year wait for their greatest obsession of all.

Argentina always have expectations at the World Cup.

But this time it was really justified.

This was not just a: Look at the players we’ve got, we really should be winning this.

It was: Look at the players we’ve got, and look how well we’re playing.

They boasted the most in form team in the world.

It’s 37...

games unbeaten.

Argentina had played Italy, the European champions in the Finalissima.

And had beaten them very, very convincingly 3-0.

And they had the new “Maradonian” Messi.

The best player of his generation.

Possibly the best player in Argentina’s history.

The best player to ever play football.

And so with their first group stage game against Saudi Arabia who were the worst ranked team in the World Cup.

The expectation wasn’t so much if they’d win but by how much.

Yet somehow..

When we lost against Saudi Arabia, I was like: “That’s it”.

Really?

Yeah, I mean, how can you lose against Saudi Arabia?

So it’s a disaster for the country.

Yeah so the media reaction is...

You know it’s exactly what you’d expect.

Of course people freaked out after the result against Saudi Arabia.

That’s a very Argentinian thing.

And there was this sort of slight sense of...

hang on, I’ve seen this from Argentina before.

Going to the World Cup as favourites and flopping in the group stage?

For Argentina it felt like Déjà vu 20 years later...

People remembered 2002...

In which Argentina also came at a World Cup in such a great form.

But they’re eliminated.

They don’t make it through to the knock outs.

And that was the big fear.

And so I think that Saudi Arabia game...

awoke all those ghosts again.

But it wasn’t only the World Cup that was reminding Argentina of 2002...

It’s always a tough moment for Argentina, but especially now.

It’s very, very difficult for Argentinians to get by every day.

Because it wasn’t just Maradona’s passing that had caused turmoil on the streets of Argentina.

There are several policies that have sent our economy into chaos.

And so similar to 2002...

2022 saw demonstrations and protests once again become a daily part of Argentine life.

Yeah, I think there was a sense of Maradona’s death, it was almost sort of the final straw.

That everything was going wrong.

The amount of families who are living without electricity right now.

The economy was in a mess, unemployment was rising, inflation was rising.

It’s a country that at this point lives with inflation.

Inflation is running at 92 per cent year to year right now.

By the end of the year it’s about to reach: 100 per cent.

So you imagine what that does to your income?

The money that you earn in January...

is worth half twelve months later.

And so more than ever, this World Cup was about so much more than football.

For Argentines this World Cup is more than just a distraction.

They need something to celebrate.

Something to believe.

Something to be hopeful about.

Yet one game in...

it already looked doomed.

So after the Saudi game, we couldn’t lose anymore.

One more loss and we were out.

They play Mexico next.

If we would have drawn against Mexico we were out in the second game.

So, basically it was sudden death...

from that moment on.

And perhaps because of that Argentina played even worse against Mexico.

When you see that first half against Mexico they were all extremely feeling the pressure that one wrong move and they would be out.

All the trauma they built up since 1990 all of that would have been weighing on them even more heavily.

They were really nervous, they were shaking.

We’ve messed it up again.

We get to another World Cup and we’ve messed it up.

So Saudi Arabia wasn’t even the low point?

It was Half Time against Mexico?

Yes. We were drawing 0-0.

So if that game stays 0-0 Argentina would have been bottom of the group.

We still have 45 minutes.

But you need a miracle?

We needed a miracle.

And that miracle came through?

Who else?

And it’s Messi again!

It has to be Messi!

Who else!?!

It’s...

the perfect shot.

And the ball went exactly where it was supposed to go...

like right next to the post.

Someone as great a goalkeeper as Ochoa could not reach that ball.

I mean what can I say man?

It’s like, it wasn’t that he just scored a regular goal.

It was another one from outside the box, from nothing.

Just like how they described Maradona in ‘86.

It’s a single moment where like one player has grabbed the tournament by the scruff of the neck and won it.

Now, it was Messi’s turn.

And then that was it...

Argentina suddenly remembered how to play football again!

They remembered they had Messi, let’s be honest.

The Mexico win was followed by a 2-0 win over Poland and that takes them to the knock stages where they beat Australia in the Round of 16 thanks to another goal from...

And so with Argentina booking their place in the quarter finals against the Dutch.

And only three games away from potential World Cup glory.

COPA90 & I decided to head out to “The Land Of Silver” to experience firsthand what could truly be the ultimate Once In A Lifetime story...

Well a very warm welcome here to Buenos Aires the time now has just gone 20 minutes past 10 in the morning.