No he isn’t Sachin Tendulkar nor
is he Roger Federer. He is Lionel Messi and is definitely not a quitter.
With my inferior knowledge of
sports, I guess I am probably one of the last persons around to comment on it,
but it’s kind of ridiculous when a leading (read: trending) website posts an
article which reads: Here’s Why Quitter Messi Will Never Be A Sachin Or A Federer.
Why should he be a Sachin or a Federer? From
what it seems, there a scale of greatness and Messi seems to have failed to
reach the level where Sachin or Federer stands. Interestingly, most of us are
naive enough to not know how to scale the greatness of an athlete and with the
blindfold of respect and admiration which we have for the player, took a bit of
offence to what was written.
I am as shocked as anyone could
be when Leo announced his retirement. But isn’t it something personal? As much
as I want to see him back in the blue and white colour, I also respect his
decision. And this respect is what most of us fail to acknowledge.
He is 29 and I am sure has enough of football left in him to humiliate any opposition. And under such circumstances, it will be far for painful for him to sit out of the squad and watch his country play. And you are calling this guy a quitter?
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| Courtesy: AFP |
To be a quitter, you have to be a
coward. And from the journey he had, does he look like one?
I am actually short of words as
to how do I sum up the uneasiness I felt after reading the piece. It actually
quantifies the negatives these greats in their respective sport had to face in
their way to success. But we don’t call them legends because they faced these
negatives; we know them because of what they have achieved.
In fact, to be honest I had tears
when Argentina lost the match and one could hardly imagine what the magician
from Argentina would have felt. Under such state of affairs, I assume it’s a
little unfair as well as harsh to label anyone a ‘quitter’.
It’s difficult for us to get in
terms with the fact that Messi has retired from international football and we all
know that it will be far far more difficult for him to not wear the national
jersey. So let us just celebrate and accolade his achievements, rather than
demeaning one hell of career with word, quitter.
To conclude with Abhik Chatterjee’s
words,
Greatness does not lie in the amount of trophies that you win. It lies in the fact that you have the power to polarize the world into lovers and haters : the respectful and the jealous. Perhaps that is their curse. Messi and Ronaldo have been cursed with greatness.
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