Leo Messi signed, last May, a stratospheric contract (the newspaper ‘La Nación’ compared it to the one he signed david beckham to be Qatar Cultural Ambassador for 10 years for 200 million dollars) with the controversial MBS, Mohammed bin Salmanthe crown prince of Saudi Arabia, to become, in reality he already is, the Tourist Ambassador of that rich country, which earned it, of course, criticism for lending itself to ‘sportswashing’, a term popularized by organizations such as Amnesty International to describe the use of sport by some governments to legitimize regimes accused of serious violations of rights humans.
Messi traveled, in that month of May, in the company of his brother matiasto participate in various tourism campaigns, advertisements and others, and his visit was used by ahmed al khatid, Minister of Tourism of Saudi Arabia, to “communicate that I am pleased to announce Leo Messi as Saudi tourism ambassador & rdquor ;. One of the advertisements ‘Visitsaudi’ shows Messi on a yacht in the Red Sea with the caption “Leo Messi wants you to unleash the search for your emotions and discover the unimaginable.”
Messi (almost) did not play
In other words, Messi made his debut yesterday against his main client, against the country that made him almost, almost, a billionaire, and football fans in Riyadh and other cities in Saudi Arabia were watching the surprising and well-deserved victory of their team while Saudi television interspersed advertisements of the Argentine star inviting the world to visit Saudi Arabia.
In Buenos Aires, where the school did not exist until after nine in the morning (the game was broadcast at seven in the morning) and the entrances to the offices were delayed as long as their employees wanted, the population, all fans of the albiceleste, suffered one of the biggest disappointments of his life, among other things because Leo Messi, ‘cold-chested’ at the time, did not show up for the game and could only get his goal “thanks to the referee’s help”, as one of the the commentators of one of the many radio stations (Radiofusión, Radio Mitre, Radio Rivadavia…) that I was listening to throughout the entire game.
Messi, who is playing his fifth World Cup and leading a team that had (until yesterday) gone 36 games without losing, fell against Saudi Arabia, one of the theoretically weakest teams in this World Cup. His match, true, like that of all his friends and colleagues, was horrible and caused the outcry of a good part of the thousands and thousands of Argentines present at the Losail stadium. “We raised money for three years to come to Qatar and they play like that, what a disappointment! & rdquor ;, lamented fans from Pergamino, a city north of Buenos Aires.
“We raised money for three years to come to Qatar and they play like that, what a disappointment!” commented some Argentine fans at the stadium
“A World Coup! & rdquor;, headlined the sporty and entertaining Argentine newspaper ‘Olé’. “Everyone expects Leo Messi to solve everything & rdquor ;, wrote ‘La Nación’, “but with each passing year, materially, his physical response is less. Scaloni also suffered the doubts of the first-timer and his captain did not rescue him & rdquor ;.
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Argentina was paralyzed this Tuesday and the entire country took a couple of hours to get going. They say that there were queues at six in the morning at the bakeries and that even at the school where the coach studied lionel scaloni, in the town of Pujato (Santa Fe province), the children met two hours before class to watch the game together. All of this so that, at minute 113 and 80 seconds, the last one, the Radiofusión commentator, shouted disconsolately “if Argentina didn’t drop an idea during the entire game, for 113 minutes, I don’t think they’re going to fall now, not even at the last second & rdquor ;.
Everything, absolutely all the consolation of a country, was centered yesterday on the fact, incontestable, on the other hand, and so they shouted on all the radios, televisions and publications in the country, that Spain, champion in South Africa, also lost (0 -1) against Switzerland in his debut match. Even for the hardest moments in Argentina’s life, the Motherland serves as a consolation. Of course, either Messi makes his debut, or Messi returns, or Messi is reborn, or that information will be of little use. No problem.