ON TUESDAY NIGHT<\/strong>, under the cloudy skies of Buenos Aires, as Argentina sorrowfully said goodbye to Lionel Messi in his final match for the national team, there was a very specific moment that I can\u2019t erase out of my mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n (Photo by Luis ROBAYO \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t the crowd\u2019s energy chanting his name upon scoring his 126th goal, nor the light drone show that extravagantly produced a tribute for the more than 85,000 witnesses packed into Estadio M\u00e1s Monumental. It wasn\u2019t Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s uncontrollable tears or even Messi\u2019s reflective speech where he solemnly remembered his late father as well as his nation.\u00a0<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t any of this.\u00a0<\/p>\n The moment that truly and fervently grabbed and brought me to tears was when Thiago Messi \u2014 Leo\u2019s 13-year-old and oldest son \u2014 approached his father during the post-game tributes and embraced him with a hug. Both consoled each other, crying in a sea of emotion because Thiago knew that his father\u2019s impact on the nation had been so powerful that this international retirement was almost too much to take in.\u00a0<\/p>\n (Photo by Tobias Skarlovnik\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n LIONEL MESSI’S INTERNATIONAL<\/strong> career cannot be defined simply by goals or assists, nor by the trophies he has accumulated along the way. There simply isn\u2019t a barometer on the planet that can measure his greatness, because what Messi has provided for Argentinians \u2014 and the footballing world \u2014 is not just about his own excellence.\u00a0<\/p>\n The real beauty is about the obstacles in Messi\u2019s path and how he battled through a series of struggles. From being rejected as an Argentinian after losing a World Cup final and back-to-back Copa Am\u00e9rica titles between 2014 and 2016 to returning to a road of redemption until winning it all in 2022.<\/p>\n (Photo by Federico Peretti\/NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n There was, therefore, a deep pain that impacted Leo throughout his career, and it wasn\u2019t until he returned from his first retirement in August 2016, two months after losing the aforementioned Copa Am\u00e9rica Centenario to Chile, that his nation realized that what Messi needed was love and support.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n “IF I GOT<\/strong> rid of my demons, I’d lose my angels.”<\/i><\/p>\n Tennessee Williams’ saying encapsulates why Messi needed those moments of struggle and rejection in order for us to fully appreciate the light of his greatness.<\/p>\n (Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n I think the answer is already here. From Lamine Yamal<\/strong>\u2019s brilliance and Erling Haaland<\/strong>\u2019s preponderance to Michael Olise<\/strong>\u2019s dazzle and Jude Bellingham<\/strong>\u2019s genius, the world\u2019s game is in good hands. World-class talent, as I have alluded to, will come and go and we will see beautiful moments from many players for the next few decades.<\/p>\n Messi’s Farewell To Argentina: A Look At The GOAT’s Historic Moments<\/p>\n As Messi’s Argentina Career Ends, How It Started Is Worth Remembering<\/p>\n And if we feel like reliving it, we can always take a trip to Miami \u2014 at least in the near future.\u00a0<\/p>\n But know this and remember it well. There will never exist another player like Lionel Messi because what he gave us wasn\u2019t just about his own brilliant self. It was also about ourselves and how, for 90 minutes, a diminutive, introverted Argentinian from Rosario made us feel like giants.<\/p>\n \u00a0(Photo by Marcelo MANERA \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY ON TUESDAY NIGHT, under the cloudy skies of Buenos Aires, as Argentina sorrowfully said goodbye to Lionel Messi in his final match for the national team, there was a very specific moment that I can\u2019t erase out of my mind.\u00a0 (Photo by Luis ROBAYO \/ AFP via Getty Images) It wasn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}