I am staring into this void, into this empty opened page of my laptop. I am thinking, trying to begin this column. I am like a footballer about to take a penalty kick. Nervous, focused, yet hoping for the best. I had hardly made my first move when my boss at the home front intruded:
“What are you writing about this week?” she asked.
“Oh, I am trying to write about Messi. I have this title: “The MESSI-ah in Paris,” I told her.
“Haa! Don’t call him Messiah. There is only one Messiah. Jesus is the only Messiah. Why don’t you qualify it and say: ‘Football Messiah?’”
“I am just making a pun on Messi,” I replied. “I have hyphenated Messi to Messi-ah. It is allowed in journalism. In any case, messiah can be used in a non-religious context.”
“Ah, Baba Tabloid. I trust you. You always have a way of coming up with a headline that is unique and unusual.”
With that green light from my boss, I started to write these opening sentences:
Everything eventually comes to an end. Everything and everyone. Who could have believed it, that Barcelona would just allow their most treasured possession to fly away? Juste comme ca. (Just like that) The one footballer who can be described by indescribable superlatives. The football messiah whom God has endowed with very special talents, making him the best footballer in the world today—if not the best ever since creation. The footballer whose genius was almost truncated by a childhood sickness that stunted his growth, that needed surgery, but God in His miraculous ways turned Messi’s shortcoming into an asset. As the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 9 verse 11: “the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”
I don’t know how you will interpret this but from the shortcoming of Lionel Messi oozes strength, skill, excellence and the ability to do extraordinary things on the field of play. The statistics are there to check: he has won everything there is to win. He has won 34 titles with Barcelona, including 10 La Liga Championships and four Champions League title. He has scored 672 goals in 778 games. He has won Ballon d’or six times and Golden Shoes also six times.
Everybody has his or her own description of Messi’s football genius. To me, he is poetry in motion and a beauty to behold. How I wish I can write the way Lionel Messi plays football. How I wish I can cast headlines like Messi heading the ball or taking spot kicks that defy the laws of physics. In the words of Pep Guardiola, “Messi is the only player that runs faster with the ball than he does without it.”
In journalism, we are told: “All news is local.” We are taught to localise rather than globalise. When a big global story breaks, every journalist is trained to find a local angle. So, what is my local angle to the Lionel Messi legend and his big move from Barcelona to Paris Saint Germain that is sending ripples across the world?
Each time I compare Lionel Messi to the fate and trajectory of our very own John Mikel Obi, I feel sad. Very, very sad. Let me borrow from our immortal poet J.P. Clark and his metaphor on sorrow when he wrote in his “Fulani Cattle” poem: “Contrition twines me like a snake/Each time I come upon the wake of your clan/Undulating along in agony.” The point I am driving at is this: in 2005, Argentina, led by the genius of the young Lionel Messi, beat Nigeria to win the Under-20 World Youth Championships for the fifth time. Messi was the undisputable star of the tournament. With six goals, he emerged the top scorer and the winner of the Golden Shoe and Golden Ball. On the Nigerian side, the winner of the Silver Shoe was Nigeria’s Number 9, John Obi Mikel, who like Messi inspired his team to reach the final. From that tournament, Messi had soared into immortality, winning everything for Barcelona, having his cabinet filled with trophies and being compared with Pele and Maradona—if not greater than them, if not the greatest player ever. So, what could have gone wrong with John Obi Mikel who like the naira to the dollar was almost at par with Lionel Messi in valuation?
Ed Dove, an African Football specialist blames it on Jose Mourinho who converted John Obi Mikel from an attacking midfielder into a defensive one in the mould of Claude Makelele, the Chelsea legend whom Mikel was forced to understudy. Dove thinks that “with John Obi Mikel, there remains a lingering doubt that he hasn’t yet, and perhaps never will, dominate the top level of football in the way he could have done. Some blame has been apportioned to José Mourinho, and on a broader level, Mikel’s decision to sign for Chelsea instead of Manchester United.” Still lamenting on what could have been for Mikel, Dove says:“John Obi Mikel provides us with a parallel case. It’s easy for English and European audiences to forget that the player was originally an attacking talent. As a youth international, Mikel began to blossom into an all-round midfielder – displaying intelligent ball retention, forceful tackling, and a certain guile, allowing him to distribute the ball creatively and effectively. At the U20 World Cup, playing an attacking role (and wearing the number 9 shirt), Mikel eclipsed talent such as Fabregas and Aguero, playing similar roles. Some Nigerians began to see in Mikel the eventual successor to Jay Jay Okocha, fanciful as it may seem today.”
As I write this column, Lionel Messi is today basking in the glory of Paris. He is wearing a white T-Shirt with the words: Ici C’est Paris. The fans besiege him at the airport, waving in their multitude and shouting his name. A soccer messiah, a demigod indeed is in town. The man who will bring PSG the elusive Champions League is here at last. He will combine with Neymar and Kylian Mbappe to unleash the deadliest attack ever in the world today. At a press conference, he is sitting on the high table with Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the President of PSG who proudly presents to the world the magician in jersey No. 30 who will bring in the elusive dream trophies. Indeed, this is a new day in Paris. A new era. A new club. A new philosophy. And a whole new Messi. This is the second coming of the “Messi-ah!”