Messi lives a year of relaxation and celebration after greater glory – 12/26/2023 – Sport

Lionel Messi smiled a lot in 2023. Wearing the Inter Miami shirt, the North American club to which he transferred, and above all with the Argentina national team uniform, the star experienced a season of celebration, without the tension experienced in previous moments.

The striker turned 36 in June and said he felt like a boy, running after the ball. A year after the World Cup triumph in Qatar, free from the weight of failures in other editions of the tournament, he is “seizing the days”.

“After winning the World Cup, I thought the cycle was closed, but quite the opposite. More than ever, I want to serve my country. We suffered a lot for several years and now we are living an incredible moment. I want to enjoy it”, he stated.

Every meeting between Messi and the Argentines has been a celebration. It was like this in the team’s first home game after the title — a friendly against Panama, in which he scored a great free kick — and in the duels for the qualifiers of the next World Cup.

Between smiles and tears of emotion, the star has been mainly responsible for putting Argentina at the top of the qualifying tournament, with five wins in six games, including a triumph over Brazil at Maracanã. He found the net three times in the competition.

Including friendlies, the number 10 scored eight times for the national team throughout the year. With Inter Miami’s pink uniform, there were more goal appearances than games. He scored 11 times and provided five assists in 14 matches, leading the team to their first ever Leagues Cup title in August.

Previously discreet in his celebrations, Messi celebrated some of these goals with relaxed gestures, with imitations of gestures characteristic of heroes such as Thor, Spider-Man and Black Panther. The star says that it is a request from his children, but MLS (Major League Soccer, the North American league) has a commercial agreement with Marvel.

After his first trophy in the United States, Lionel returned to Europe to receive, for the eighth time, the “Golden Ball” from France Football magazine, which further isolated him as the award’s biggest winner.

The award considered the Argentine’s achievements in the 2022/23 season, but it was not the 21 goals and 20 assists in 41 games for Paris Saint-Germain or the French Championship title that qualified him to win the trophy.

The award was another way to celebrate his performance at the World Cup in Qatar. The star scored seven goals, two of them in the final against France, in addition to providing three assists, with performances that saw him named the best player in the competition.

In the French magazine’s award, he beat Erling Haaland, from Manchester City, and Kylian Mbappé, his former PSG teammate and his opponent in the World Cup final.

“If you don’t insist on your dreams, like I did, things don’t happen. I insisted and I achieved it,” said the Argentine.

Winning the World Cup also motivated Messi to leave European football. He himself recognized that the time had come to look for a league with less pressure and that’s why he chose the United States.

In Paris he was not happy. The relationship with the club and, mainly, with the fans was, during the final half of his stay, complicated due to the failures in the Champions League.

“Going to Paris wasn’t something I wanted. I didn’t want to leave Barcelona, ​​and that happened overnight,” he recently admitted. “It’s the complete opposite of what’s happening now [nos Estados Unidos]thank God.”

The “now” he refers to is the calmer life he leads with his children and wife in Miami. Not that he isn’t recognized or draws crowds wherever he goes, but he found space to do simple things, which were never possible in Europe.

For example, a video was spread on the internet in which he and his family were in a supermarket shopping. Despite taking some photos with fans, he seemed very calm about the situation.

“We are very happy to have chosen this place to live.”