Can Leo Messi break the FIFA World Player jinx?
by Steve Davis on Dec 22, 2009 12:25 PM EST
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Lionel Messi has just been graced with the 2009 FIFA World Player award.
Or, should we have selected our action verb a little more carefully in this particular case? Should we have said the
Why such a cynical tone? Simple. Because gaining the honor in a year before the World Cup has rarely meant good things. Courtesy of my pal, who works up World Cup facts and figures the way Giada De Laurentiis works up delicious Italian food, reminded us of the unlovely history in this matter. Here’s what it looks like:
Year: 1993
Winner:
Follow year’s World Cup impact: The rat-tailed attacker did fine in the World Cup before his inglorious, notorious moment in the final, jettisoning a penalty kick in the Rose Bowl stands as
Year: 1997
Winner:
Follow year’s World Cup impact: Has anyone ever really gotten to the bottom of what happened to the Brazilian wonder before the final in
Year: 2001
Winner:
Follow year’s World Cup impact: In a stunner,
Year: 2005
Winner:
Follow year’s World Cup impact: Everyone kept waiting for a breakout performance from the smiling sensation, as his performances in
So, now it’s on Messi to break the jinx. Because
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Messi has been stellar at FC Barcelona
and shows no signs of slowing down. If he isn’t as successful with his national team, maybe it’s because he doesn’t have Xavi, Iniesta, Ibra, Henry, etc. feeding him the ball.
I really dislike everything about the current Argentina team except for Messi; I don’t believe there’s another Argentine player good enough to start for Barça. (Higüaín? OK, he’s good, but who do you take out, Messi, Henry, or Ibra? And Pedro’s the fourth forward, and he’s still developing while Higüaín has already peaked.) I especially despise Maradona. That guy has managed to play frontman consecutively for the Argentine junta, the Camorra, and Fidel Castro during his extremely unstable career. Not to mention, you know, all the cocaine and prostitutes.
Barça has a long history of signing Argentines who didn’t work out: Saviola, Riquelme, Sorín, Bonano. The only one I have a positive memory of is Pizzi.
It's pronounced Poo-ZHOLS in Catalan.
Yeah, that was a few years before my time.
I came to Barcelona about 1990 and of course became a fan then. I’d played soccer as a kid, but never had a pro team to root for before. Maradona was only on Barça about a year and a half in the early ’80s before the Mob bought him for Napoli.
The gossip around town is that Maradona picked up his bad drug and alcohol habits here in Barcelona, where the nightlife is vibrant (translation: lots of people take lots of substances and stay up real late looking for and generally finding sex, which means they don’t show up at practice the next day). Whatever, he’s remembered around here as an ignorant jerk who was bad for the team.
It's pronounced Poo-ZHOLS in Catalan.
he’s ignorant. he’s a jerk. but he (and menotti) took barça to the copa del rey. i’m not a fan of his, but regardless of what i think, he was pretty good with the ball.
but anyway, barcelona is a special case with a special style. it might be hard to make players fit into it, but that doesn’t mean they’re not otherwise good players. maybe messi’s the only argentine that fits because he was brought up with the style from very young. all those other names you mention, they had success elsewhere, they weren’t necessarily bums.
don't care if i ever get back.
by AV on Jan 8, 2010 2:29 AM EST up reply actions
go messi
i never heard about the curse till right now. but i believe every man makes his own luck and makes a path to his own future..im sure messi will do just fine as long as he stays focused and ignores all the “jinx” hype.
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