Humour us as we stick our neck out like this: Lionel Messi is Quite Good at Football™. At the peak of his powers, in 2012, he scored 91 goals for Barcelona in a calendar year. That isn’t a typo, but was sandwiched in between two World Cups when he looked an entirely different player… and not in a good way.
In 2010, Argentina sailed comfortably through the groups under the management of Diego Maradona, before being humiliated 4-0 by Germany in the quarter-finals, exiting without their star man scoring a single goal.
In 2014, while they did reach the final in Brazil before losing to Germany again, they mustered a single knockout goal in normal time – Messi’s only strikes came in the group phase against Bosnia, Iran and Nigeria. The less said about 2018, the better.
You’d have been forgiven for thinking the World Cup was destined to forever be the one accolade that would evade Messi. But in 2022, in the midst of his final season at Paris Saint-Germain during the “winding down” of his career… it finally happened.
So how, in one of football’s most universal conundrums, did we see the best version of Argentina, so long after we saw the best version of its best player?
01 PAUCITY OF OPTIONS
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة November 2024 من FourFourTwo UK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة November 2024 من FourFourTwo UK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
"THE PLAYERS DIDN'T SEE KEVIN KEEGAN'S 'MELTDOWN' AS ANYTHING NEGATIVE. WE LOVED HIM FOR HIS PASSION"
The Geordie recalls King Kev's rant, shares his love for Ossie Ardiles and reveals what it's like to cross the Tyne-Wear divide
"HODDLE HAD BEEN PLAYING FOR MONACO UNDER WENGER, SO WE COULDN'T BELIEVE IT WHEN HE JOINED SWINDON HE WAS LIGHT-YEARS AHEAD!"
The tireless winger opens up on playing in his dad's shadow and making the wrong kind of headlines at Sunderland...
"I'M PROUD TO BE THE FIRST AFRICAN IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE - BUT LOOK WHO CAME LATER"
FFT chats to the three Boy's A Bit Special stars of Issue 1: first, a humble hotshot on rejecting Arsenal and being 'Nuddy'
AROUND THE GROUNDS
Rangers' in-form keeper tells FFT he has his sights set on a Three Lions recall
WHY MESSI'S ARGENTINA HAD TO GET 'WORSE' TO CONQUER WORLD
The Albiceleste didn't have their most talented squad in 2022, and their star wasn't at his absolute peak - but 4-4-2 helped them to win anyway...
WHY 1999 WAS THE FINEST MOMENT FOR 4-4-2... AND SIR ALEX FERGUSON
Manchester United swept to a famous Treble thanks to the management skills of their legendary boss - and a formation that suited them perfectly
HOW THE 4-4-2 BECAME BRITISH FOOTBALL'S MOST ICONIC FORMATION
A system of playing inspired the name for this very magazine - on these shores, for numerous reasons, it's football heritage
FINDING DIEGO
A little over a year before his untimely death at the age of 60, Diego Maradona was managing Mexican second-tier side Dorados de Sinaloa - FourFourTwo went deep into drug cartel country to track him down
RESPECT
That's what women's football demands more than anything. Its status has grown exponentially during FourFourTwo's lifetime, but finally the long and arduous battle for recognition is starting to pay dividends
EL TEL THE MAN WHO HELPED TO LAUNCH FourFourTwo
Terry Venables was the cover star for FFT's launch issue in 1994 a year after his death, former players pay tribute to one of the finest managers Britain has ever produced