2023-11-09 18:04:00
2023-11-09
Lionel Messi and Zinedine Zidane, two of the greatest exponents of soccer, had a very soccer talk in Miami for the Adidas brand.
“It’s a shame not to have been able to play with you,” the Frenchman started, and Leo returned the wall: “I admire you very much. We weren’t lucky enough to play together, we were lucky enough to face each other a little bit and then you as a coach. Always with respect and admiration for everything you did and continue to do.”
Antonela Roccuzzo’s emphatic stance on what happened to Messi and journalist Sofi Martínez in the Ballon d’Or
-THE FULL TALK-
Messi and the number 10: “For Argentines, 10 is a very special number, Maradona automatically comes to mind. Those of us who grew up with football wanted to be like him, although later no one became like him, that was the desire and hope. Copy what Maradona did, the player we admired. I saw little of Diego, when he went to Newell’s in the final stage he was 6, 7 years old. I don’t remember much, then I obviously saw videos, but even though I haven’t seen him, he was the reference and our idol.”
Maradona: “Diego is something very strong, who will continue to be there for many more years. As he was while he was present. My children know regarding Diego without ever having seen him, from videos, from what we tell them. For us, his figure is very important for everything he represented Argentines worldwide.”
The hook: “Since we were little we all wanted to have the 10. Today I don’t know if it is so important. The position it had before, the hitch, today is more interior or on false ends. Few remain. The one that always characterized the Argentine 10, players like Riquelme and Aimar.”
Leo and his children: “My children love soccer, they are little. Boys generally like to score goals, unless you are born crazy regarding the goal, heh. They spend all day with the ball. Football was always first in my head until my children and family arrived. Today that I am a father I realize the effort they make for their children, taking them to train, to play….”
Messi surprises and visits a remembered former Honduran National League player. What was the reason?
Zidane’s idol: “My reference was Enzo Francescoli who played for Marseille, one of my sons is named following Enzo. When I saw him I said ‘I want to be like him’. He was very elegant, how he handled the ball, you didn’t see that much. When Enzo came we saw that he was a different footballer, there were not many foreigners, he was a magician with the ball. I wanted to do the same.”
Messi on Enzo: “I was a boy but I saw the River era when they won everything, they had a great team. Today he continues to work at the club. I was lucky to meet him and he is a great person. I remember that River was crazy, it was his last stage in River.”
Aimar, Leo’s idol: “I really liked Aimar. A player whose way of playing I loved, in River he also had a great team. Aside from Diego, who was a separate case, Pablo was a person that he greatly admired as a player. As a kid I didn’t follow European football that much.”
Modern football: “Football changed a lot, the way of playing, the systems. When they were little they started playing 4-3-3 and that’s why the number 10 doesn’t fit into that system. In this way, the training of those players was also lost. “Before, I spent a lot of the game with the 10… I don’t know if the number is as important as it was in another era, but it is still a special shirt.”
He wore number 30 at PSG: “When I had to be in Paris I didn’t have number 10, it didn’t matter and nothing happened, but I did miss having my lifelong number a little bit, but I got used to it. I debuted at number 30 and I also had something special.”
What is Messi for Zidane? “Magic. To all the people who like football, these players are different. There are but they are few, like him not. Leo is an example for everyone, his life is family and football. Thinking that he can do what he does on the court makes people dream. When he is on the field the others have confidence. Before receiving the ball he already knows what he is going to do.”
Leo’s praise for Zidane: “For me he is one of the greatest in history, I suffered a lot in Madrid because I was from Barcelona, the time of the Galacticos. He was always a different, elegant player, he had everything. I remember the goal once morest Leverkusen in the Champions League and the World Cup in France. The great players transfer to the shirt and the country. “He was the different one.”
Messi to the generations to come: “We were touched, we were lucky to be chosen. Then there is a job, a day-to-day responsibility, we took the path to try to achieve what we achieved. We always behave with respect and humility, that’s what I was taught as a child at home. Take advantage of the opportunity and put your mind to it, there are many who have talent and stay along the way, because it also takes work and some luck.”
Try until you succeed: “I always did everything possible to be well and enjoy it. The only way to go in search of a goal is to fight and in the end things come. The road is hard and you stumble many times, but in the end what has to happen happens. You can’t always win, it’s part of life, there are difficult moments, it happens to anyone in their job. You have to get up and try once more, you have to always give your all to try to achieve it. If you do it, then the result is secondary.”
If I had to repeat a game: “Things happen because they have to happen, I don’t regret all the path I took. I was lucky to have many joys, also sadness, but still the thorn of the 2014 World Cup final. I was able to draw it a little with this World Cup, heh.”
Goal or assist? “Scoring a goal in the World Cup final is the best, we can both say that, heh. “Sometimes a pass is prettier than a goal and it’s a pleasure to do it.”
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