I am not a sports psychologist, I clarify before starting. But I’m a football fan, which authorizes me to give unfounded opinions and make all the mistakes that are customary in the matter. And on top of that “we are” world champions and Messi was received, now, as an idol. In an unappealable way. Those who are still discussing it are a handful of Real Madrid fans and some others hurt by their defeat. If something was missing from his indecipherable ability, his vision of the game, his admirable finishes, the innumerable records, the Ballon d’Ors, his simplicity and humility on and off the field, that Copa América that healed the Injured, if he still lacked something, it was to be world champion at 35, in his fifth world championship and being a figure in every game, leading a group of adorable madmen who followed him with blind faith, like the patrol recruits followed their its captain in the war movies of our childhood. And as if that were not enough, he showed us that it is possible to get up from the mire of defeat and the wild questions we asked him, and go ahead and turn history around, in a display of resilience.
That is why it is not surprising that the adjectives used to describe it today, here and around the world, are superhuman. But beware, the psychology of idolatry is ruthless. If Kolo Muani’s dying ball entered the Argentine goal in that fatal minute, how many would continue to discuss and compare him with Maradona, our other equally admired and reviled idol, or with Mbappé? It’s true, some, perhaps many, understood that even if they didn’t win the World Cup, the account was settled, we enjoyed it, and it deserved our equal recognition. But if he hadn’t won the restorative Copa América before, how much smaller would the circle of his unconditional defenders be? And even now that he won everything and that “that’s it” as he shouted towards his family’s box at the end of the game, we can still ask for more.
That he show us the path of national union, that he be an example of this and that, that he say what we like to hear, that he be the good idol, that he play another World Cup at 39, etc., etc. Because idolatry is about us, not him or what he does. It is about asking for it, and taking it out, and putting what we need for our thirsty souls. And it is about our blindness. He redeemed himself; we the fans, no. We will continue feeding on idols like zombies, and now more than ever we have the perfect, complete idol. And for this reason, as a psychologist, not as a fan, I tell myself, let’s let this exceptional man rest on his own, and let’s not ask him for anything else, please.
* Fernando Torrente, Director of the Ineco Foundation’s Institute of Neurosciences and Public Policies.
by Fernando Torrente*
