We owe Messi the choice to exit international football

As I write this, from the Stade de France in St Denis, I am watching one of the world’s truly great footballers. Andres Iniesta, 32, is one of those players who — if you have the privilege of watching — remind you instantly of all the things that make football an incomparably popular sport.

Despite the massive global proliferation of the sport and the astounding levels of technical and physical ability at which the game is played, the group of truly great players is a very small one. Each time you get to see one of them, you are humbled and grateful. And with each major tournament, the Euro or the Copa this year, comes the inevitable end of some of these glorious careers.

With Spain going out of the Euro, I can’t help but wonder whether this was the last time I would see Iniesta turn out for the La Rioja.

Also read: Messi quits international football, fans say don't go, on Twitter

He will still play football for a few more years, no doubt. He is not a personal friend, nor am I particularly passionate about the fortunes of the Spanish national team. Yet, with each such “passing”, there is a sense of loss not unlike the death of a distant, but delightful, relative.

However, the rather surprising news coming in Monday morning must have instilled a sense of loss among Argentinians that will surpass the grief they must be feeling at losing their fourth straight final.

Lionel Messi, arguably the greatest player of his generation, was inconsolable after missing his penalty last night and failing — once again — to inspire his team to win a final. Such was the anger and pain that he announced almost immediately that he was “done with the national team”.

Also read: Why Lionel Messi is still not a football great

The relationship between Messi and Argentina is a strange one. Having moved to Spain when he was barely in his teens, Messi has won it all with Barcelona. At 29, he already has eight Spanish league titles and four Champions League medals.

He is also the leading scorer of all time in the Spanish league. But Messi is not Catalan, and so he will always be an outsider in his adopted home. He could have played for Spain — easily — and it is fantastic to daydream about the domination La Rioja could have achieved if Messi had joined the ranks. But he chose to stick to his roots, remaining close to a small inner circle in Rosario, speaking with the same accent, pledging himself to the Blue and White.

Also read: Ronaldo is still not as great as Messi

Despite all Messi has achieved for club and country, in Argentina popular opinion is divided. He is the nation’s all-time leading scorer, including four on the way to that World Cup final at the Maracana two years ago.

But for many Argentinians, Messi is an outsider, more from Barcelona than Rosario. After that match too, there were only tears and criticism for the little genius.

When he walked up to collect the Golden Ball, given to the best player of the tournament, he seemed uninterested in the prize. “It was no consolation,” he said then.

It was clear that the loss had devastated him. None of us who were at the stadium that day imagined it might be Messi’s last match for Argentina at a World Cup. We shed tears for Xavi and for Andrea Pirlo and Philipp Lahm, but Messi had at least two more World Cups in him, surely. Physically, he still does. But I believe Messi is suffering from that all-too-common malaise — a broken heart.

Soon after the Golden Ball decision, Diego Maradona (who remains the nation’s favourite son despite a long an colourful history of misdemeanours) publicly criticised the award as a marketing decision. He believed Colombia’s James Rodriguez deserved it more.

It was another chapter in the story that — at least at a subliminal level — might have a great deal to do with Monday’s events. For Argentinians, Messi would only have been truly accepted if he did what Maradona had done in 1986.

Nothing less than the World Cup matters. The anger and the hurt of not being champions of America, or of the world, and the constant comparison with Maradona had perhaps become a cross too heavy to bear for the man who has led one of the greatest club sides in history.

Speaking to people here in Paris we mostly heard appeals to Messi. Appeals to reconsider, to give it some time and to consider the impact his decision will have on the national team. There were a few who said Messi’s exit might make it easier for Argentina.

Without him in the side, the expectations will be more realistic and the team will be able to play with greater freedom and flexibility. Freed from the nation’s expectations, it can also be argued that Messi will become an even greater force for Barcelona — unencumbered and rampant.

There were also some who viewed the whole matter as beyond debate. The view that playing for the national team is a bit like conscription. That as long as a player is fit, available and good enough to be selected, it is his duty to wear the national shirt. There should be no choice in the matter.

And here too the Maradona debate reared its inevitable head. By retiring without winning a major trophy Messi was admitting he is lesser than Maradona, said one fan. For those of us who consider Messi the greatest footballer to have roamed the earth, this admission of defeat seems like a betrayal of sorts.

But I think the most significant outcome of Messi’s announcement is a rare glimpse into the soul of an otherwise inscrutable man.

Quiet to a fault, intensely personal, Messi has always given the impression of being detached from it all. Monday was different. For once, he came out and told the world exactly how he felt. He may not have prepared a grand speech but it was a pure outpouring of emotion. It was a sign, maybe even a plea. I am also human, is what it sounded like Messi was saying.

Perhaps the fans and the federation will persuade him to change his mind, perhaps he will remain steadfast. But do we not owe this man, who has given countless football fans innumerable moments of elation, the simple freedom of having a choice?