Speaking the name Paolo Maldini, Francesco Totti, up to Ryan Giggs, who imagined later was the word loyalty and devotion. But when Lionel Messi chose to continue to be loyal with Barcelona, strangely it turned out to be a question.
Maldini has passed various eras in Milan. Maldini was there when Milan relied on the Dutch trio, Ruud Gullit-Frank Rijkaard-Marco Van Basten and he was still there when Milan relied on Andrea Pirlo-Kaka-Gennaro Gatusso.
Francesco Totti is a symbol of AS Roma’s loyalty. With the skills possessed by Totti, he was once the target of big European clubs. But Totti chose to stay in Rome, even though that meant he had to retire with a minimal degree.
Ryan Giggs also never thought of moving. Together with Paul Scholes and Gary Neville, he is a player who continues to defend Manchester United from the beginning to the end of his career. The three players are a symbol of the success of the ‘Red Devils’ in the era of the English Premier League.
In addition to these names, there are still Rogerio Ceni, Franco Baresi, Carles Puyol, Tony Adams, Ledley King, Jamie Carragher, and other names known as players who are loyal to one club throughout their careers.
The names above are respected names, even by those who are not supporters of the club where the player takes shelter.
Today, Lionel Messi is 32 years old. Messi has been a star in the world since he was a teenager. He then became Barcelona’s main backbone when he was still in his early 20s. Messi often shows things beyond common sense in the world of football. For individual sizes, only Cristiano Ronaldo is not pale when compared with Messi. Other players? Will definitely submissive for Messi.
For the size of the goal machine, Messi is a machine that has never decreased in quality. But the matter of Messi is not just a goal because he is also used to creating attacks and creating many assists for his colleagues. So far Messi has scored 671 goals and 271 assists. He has pocketed a total of 32 championship trophies in his career. But behind the phenomenal appearance of Messi, there are still many claims that the quality of Messi is still worthy of doubt.
The main cause is that he never left Barcelona. Messi was considered too comfortable at Barcelona and did not dare to accept the challenge of playing outside Catalunya. These accusations later became a strange thing because in the end Messi got a different treatment. On the career pages of other players, a star player can be labeled a traitor if he is easily tempted by offers from other clubs.
But when Messi so far is still loyal to Barcelona, Messi is showered with doubts and question marks about his quality. There are a number of strong factors that ultimately make Messi’s loyalty and devotion then not always bear fruit of praise.
The first factor is clear Ronaldo. Messi and Ronaldo are rivals. Both are always compared because only Ronaldo can be compared with Messi. In his career, Ronaldo has often changed clubs. Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United, Real Madrid and now Juventus. The quality of Ronaldo is considered more powerful because it has been tested in various conditions and competitions.
The second factor, the players who had been loyal were dominated by players not strikers. Whereas a forward player is more synonymous with changing clubs in the course of his career. Nobody questioned Maldini’s decision to choose to stay in Milan’s ‘Dream Team’ without being moved to seek new challenges for proof. There was nothing to highlight the choice Ryan Giggs remained loyal at Manchester United when they got everything there.
Totti is a forward, but the fact that AS Roma is not as big as Barcelona makes Totti’s steps to stay defensive automatically flooded with praise.
Though Messi himself has good reason to continue to survive in Barcelona. At present, Messi often appears as a savior of Barcelona, but long before that, Barcelona first became the savior of Messi. Messi is a child born with a growth hormone disorder. The world barely had a chance to know Messi if Barcelona did not reach out.
Barcelona detect Messi’s talents and without hesitation financed the treatment of Messi. Barcelona became Messi’s place to grow and develop. The reason was enough to be the reason Messi was still loyal. Many consider Messi not to leave the comfort zone in Barcelona. He is used to being spoiled by passes from Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta. Messi is considered to have the freedom to express without excessive burden like when he was dressed in Argentina.
The critics like to forgetting that Messi can still triumph even though Xavi has left Barcelona since 2015 and then Iniesta has left in 2018. Messi can still routinely score more than 40 goals each season. The titles continued to be won by Messi for Barcelona each season.
The critics must remember that Messi is great not only because he is surrounded by other star players in Barcelona. But Barcelona can enter the golden period and look great because there is Messi in it. When football fans look respectfully for high-loyalty players like Maldini, Totti and Giggs, Messi should have been treated similarly when he decided Barcelona until the end of his career.
