Lying down, getting dirty for your team

Leo Messi is in a better place as ‘one of the boys’ than as a diva.

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Leo Messi
Oh, for the well-meant concerns of the faithful. And bhakts in the international football arena are no better or worse when it comes to upholding feudal behaviour. On Tuesday night, after a sticky start, Paris Saint-Germain, with its star ensemble, won their Champions League encounter with fancy Manchester City. Quite importantly, Lionel Messi, also after a sticky start with his new club, scored his first goal wearing a non-Barcelona, non-Argentina jersey in a superb one-two with Kylian Mbappe. All was hunky-dory - for PSG fans, for Messi fans, for neutral football fans. Except, apparently, towards the end of the game, Messi lay down behind the PSG players' wall to block any shot trickled under the jumping Paris defenders from a Manchester free kick. Howls from some quarters followed, including from former Manchester centre back United Rio Ferdinand: how can Messi be made to lie on the ground behind a defence wall?

For these lot, PSG manager and fellow Argentinian Mauricio Pochettino had committed blasphemy. In Ferdinand's words, 'It's disrespectful... [Messi] doesn't get his kit dirty!' And, yet, this is exactly what the world's greatest player is better off doing - being part of the gang, getting his kit dirty, rather than be handled with kid gloves and be made out to be a prima donna. Feudal fans in other playing fields, please do note.
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