Lionel Messi lost three finals in two years: the 2014 World Cup against Germany, the 2015 Copa América, and the 2016 Centenario Cup, both against Chile. After the last one, he walked toward the microphones and said what millions heard without being able to believe it: “It’s over for me with the national team. It’s unbelievable, but it just doesn’t happen for me.”
Decades later, in an interview with ESPN, the Argentine star explained what really pushed him to that limit. It wasn’t just the pain of losing. “We had been suffering a lot after the Copa América because of the things that were being said, off-the-field things that were being twisted in every direction. A lot of lies, and in the middle of it were our families and the people one loves, who suffer a great deal”, he confessed. “It just came out. I felt like I couldn’t take any more of everything I was going through.”
What no one imagined then was that the man who said goodbye with a breaking voice would end up returning, winning the Copa América against Brazil and lifting the World Cup against France. The very story that seemed like a tragedy became the greatest in football.