More than just millions. Why Messi’s move to Saudi Arabia is logical
Leo Messi is leaving Paris, Karim Benzema is saying goodbye to Real Madrid, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic is barely holding back his sobs at the San Siro, experiencing the end of his career. All this happens almost simultaneously. The end of the 2022/23 season draws a line under the first two decades of both the new century and the new millennium. 20 years is the lifespan of one strong generation of footballers, taken with a good margin: Zlatan played until 41, Messi and Benzema still continue, but perhaps not in Europe. It turns out that with the onset of this summer, we see off the first great generation of players of the twenty-first century.
Epochs in football have always been measured by the careers of major figures. But if in the last century it was exclusively natural nuggets like Pele, who did not even need to play for European clubs for worldwide recognition, now the production of cult heroes has been put on stream.
At the beginning of this century, football and show business were inextricably linked, adopted the properties and methods of each other. The turnover of the advertising market has increased tenfold. The Internet appeared as a world-wide accessible creative environment. A new mythology of demigod football heroes developed rapidly, as in the classical pantheon of Greece. Beckham and Messi, Ronaldo and Ibrahimovic are easy to imagine in the same row where Dionysus and Prometheus, Narcissus and Achilles were placed.
For centuries, a man of the past could retell myths in which the same heroes of elegant paganism act. Modern man, on the other hand, needs a change of faces – of course, while maintaining roles. He needs all the same heroes, villains, monsters and handsome men, but under new names. Moreover, the terms of the careers of even the most brilliant players have natural limits.
So far, two super-gifted players stand out from the ranks of new players: Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland. It seems not enough for a new pantheon. If there are only two of them left, then the world of football myths is doomed to live in the usual duality of the beginning of this century, which was marked by either the real or the imaginary confrontation between Ronaldo and Messi. The model is working, tested. But fresh actors should have enough strength to perform roles for just as long and convincingly.
The piquancy is added by the football “immortality” that Cristiano has already gained, and Messi, it seems, is going to find in the Arab East. These lands become a kind of eternal kingdom for idols who left the “earthly” life in football Europe with honor. Cristiano and Messi are not even going to end their careers!
The Argentine has not yet revealed his plans, but Karim Benzema will definitely join Ronaldo in the Saudi championship, which will attract even more attention to this New World of football. Perhaps the center of the football empire of the future is emerging there, and Europe will have to share and make room. The Saudis are wasting no time enjoying the fruits of the first-ever World Cup, which was held in the Arab East: in this part of the world, inhabited by hundreds of millions of football fans, interest in the game is growing every day.
Zlatan could also head east if his health still allowed him to enter the field. Benzema and Messi, on the other hand, left their top clubs because they lost confidence in the main thing: in the ability not only to win the Champions League, but to guarantee the fight for a new victory in the future. It is the League and the magic of this silver cup “with ears” that motivates the best in European football. Messi and Benzema have won the Champions League repeatedly, but it was the desire for a new victory that drove the Argentine when moving from Barcelona.
Paris Saint-Germain won the French championship with Messi for the 11th time, this is a new record. Behind is Saint-Etienne, who were going through better times half a century ago and where coach Christophe Galtier had previously successfully worked – another coach who did not succeed in Paris. For Galtier, this championship (the second in three years) is a personal success. For Paris Saint-Germain, as for the Comte de La Fère, it is too little.
Everyone remembers Messi’s tears on the day he said goodbye to Barcelona. But in Paris, Leo was simply booed. The French were not stopped even by the world championship of the great Argentine. Obviously, no king would want to leave like that. Therefore, both this king and the pretenders to the throne from the future will think a thousand times whether they need such movements between the clubs of Europe. Wouldn’t it be better to go straight to Eastern Eden, where they are not only carried in their arms, but also given unprecedented powers?
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