What if we thought it was the last for Lionel Messi (but really)?

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At the Châtelet theater,

To think that some oddballs thought it was Karim’s year. The Madrid lobbying, the little tickles behind Florentino Perez’s back, and the Ballon d’Or at papa’s. Results ? Not even on the podium. Those who had bet on the murderer of Warsaw, aka Robert Lewandowski? Nie, in Polish. The guy may butcher the Bundesliga and explode a record that dated from Bismarck, he can still pack the Christmas decoration, after the cancellation of a trophy that could only land on his bed in 2020.

Note that the fun is total, since here comes the trophy for top scorer of the year from the magic hat of the ceremony, tailor-made for this good Robert. Even Messi was embarrassed when his name came out of the only envelope that matters: “You had everyone agree last year Robert, you deserved this Ballon d’Or, I hope France Football can do something thing and give it to you anyway ”.

Lewandowski still docked

Yet we believed in it until the end. Well almost. For once, no one was walking in the passageways of the Châtelet theater the informed air of those in the know. But that was a clue in itself. If nothing or so little had filtered out on the winner of the evening, it is because we take less risk of being spotted when we have ten steps to do to hand the Vuitton suitcase to the winner, with the diamond in it. , rather than a country to cross. And when the legend left the Rolls in a sequined suit with all the kids on the trail in the same outfit, we understood.

New Ballon d’Or for Lionel Messi, therefore, with 33 points ahead of his runner-up, a good margin. The sixth ? The seventh ? The eighth ? We don’t even pay attention anymore. How to fight, it is true, against the eternal genius of the Argentinian satrap and the luster of the Copa America, that he won for the first time this summer. Perhaps the misunderstanding comes from there, moreover. The perception we have of the event in Europe, either a sympatoche beach tournament with free caipirinhas at half-time, or something like that.

The exegeses of South American football will scream loudly and explain to us that the test is much more severe than our Euro with 67 teams, and we will answer that if only it were true, we would not have seen four European teams in semi-final of the last World Cup. In short, the Valladolid controversy, less long and much more useless.

The Copa America was enough for Messi

Still, Messi won it, this Copa record, and that he was even elected best player, what we want to believe, since we have not seen a match. “I think that I would not have won this Ballon d’Or without this victory with Argentina, after so many failures and so many criticisms, so I want to thank all my teammates of the selection and the staff”, admitted without detour the Parisian.

Why is this title so important? Because in the idea that we have the Ballon d’Or, finishing top scorer in a championship completed in 3rd place, with less impressive statistics than during his great years, is not enough, a priori, to bring back the trophy.

And this, even when we claim a smiling understanding of human nature and the flaws of voters like us. Because at this point, Mbappé, who puts on the pawns in L1, who also won a title with his national team this season, in addition to boning Barça and Bayern alone in the Champions League, would have finished a little higher than his 9th place, the worst since he entered the big world in 2017, right?

A little parenthesis here on Bondy’s frog. If the boy had any doubts about his meager chances to steal a Ballon d’Or by playing at PSG, he is now well dated: if by luck Paris went to the end in C1 this season, we would find a way to give back the toy to Messi, because-good-the-beautiful-history-and-then- you-saw-this-decisive-pass-on-free-kick-in-8th-against-Wolfsburg? Comment from Kyky arriving: “Of course the goal is to win it, but there is a process and I’m on the right path”. In the right club? To have.

Of course, we could also choose to get excited about a Ballon d’Or which returns to Ligue 1 for the first time since JPP, but frankly, that would be ignoring the world. Messi has spent more time on the plane than at PSG since August, and he drags a starving statistical performance for a player of his stature.

What if we changed the rule?

It is time, we say to ourselves, that our esteemed colleagues understand that the glories established by decrees irritate everyone, and stop confusing the best player in the world with the best of the year. Or that they confuse them in everything. The best player in the world for the whole of 2021, is called as much, if not more, Haaland, Mbappé, Benzema, or Lewandowski, as Messi.

If we came out a little reassured of the credit given to the Chelsea Kanté-Jorginho doublet (654 points between them), we come to wonder whether we should not do as with the Goncourt price. One reward for life, unless you change your name and deceive your world, like Romain Gary, a feat out of reach even for the star of Rosario. Because if we have to come back next year to attend the coronation of Cristiano Ronaldo in the name of his fabulous return to Manchester United and a victory in the FA Cup, we might as well go to our execution directly.


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