Does Lionel Messi Lack Ambition?

Barcelona and Argentina star Lionel Messi is one of the greatest football players ever to play the game. To some, he's the outright best ever. Very few people would debate his status as one of the all-time greats, and doing so isn't the purpose of this article. We, along with almost every other football fan in the world, recognise that few players have ever reached the levels that Messi has achieved, and when he eventually retires, the sport will be poorer for his absence. With that said, is it fair to criticise him for a lack of ambition?

The reason we ask is that - assuming the reports in the press this week are accurate - Messi is going to stay at Barcelona. He’s even agreed to a salary cut to make it easier for the club to keep him. His new contract is said to keep him at the Nou Camp until 2026. By that time, Messi will be 39 years old. The agreement seems to ensure that he'll stay with Barcelona for the remainder of his career, ending the rumours that he'd like to play in America before he retires and ruling out the fading possibility that he'll one day try his hand in another European country. Messi has been with Barcelona since he was a child and will never play a single game for any other club. His loyalty is both rare and commendable given the mercenary status of many modern top-tier players, but it may also come with a tiny dose of cowardice.

Throughout his whole career, Messi's biggest rival for the status of "best player in the world" has been Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo. Both have won the Ballon d'Or more times than anyone else in history. Both have won international honours and have trophy cabinets full of treasures that their peers could only dream of. There's a significant difference between Ronaldo's medal collection and Messi's medal collection, though. Ronaldo's comes from all over Europe. He's won domestic honours with Manchester United in England, Real Madrid in Spain, and Juventus in Italy. He's won the UEFA Champions League with both Manchester United and Real Madrid. Ronaldo challenged himself by moving between countries and competitions, excelling in all of them. Messi played it safe and stayed with Barcelona.

While it's impossible to doubt the talent of Messi, he benefits from having had a whole team built around him for more than fifteen years. The purpose of every other player at Barcelona is to get the ball to Messi and help him score. He's the central piece in the puzzle. All the other pieces are there to optimise his skill set. Ronaldo has had to adjust to new teammates, new leagues, and new situations. Messi has been spoon-fed everything he needs to succeed. While Messi may be the better player from a technical point of view, Ronaldo has arguably shown a better ability to adapt and a greater willingness to take risks to prove himself. It would undoubtedly have been hard for Messi to cut ties with a club that he was almost raised by since he was a child, but his unwillingness to do so may ultimately become an asterisk next to all of his achievements.

Some might argue that it doesn’t make sense for a player to gamble with their career when things are going so well. Changing environments is as big a risk as throwing your entire salary into an online slots game and hoping it pays off. This comparison is, perhaps, apt. Ronaldo’s such a marketable international star that his likeness appears on the "Striker Goes" wild online slots game that’s so popular with players at Roseslots.ie. Messi keeps a lower profile and has taken no gambles. We have no idea whether he's even familiar with the concept of online slots, but if he was, we suspect he wouldn't be interested in playing them. The idea of taking a greater risk in the hope of receiving a greater reward appears to be alien to him. It would explain why he's chosen to remain at Barcelona even as the club appears to be declining around him. It's hard to imagine Ronaldo staying put in the same situation.

A little over a year ago, it looked like things might be about to change for Messi. After a season of disappointment with Barcelona, he attempted to execute a clause in his contract that he believed would allow him to leave on a free transfer and try his luck elsewhere. His preferred destination was thought to be Manchester City, where he could reunite with former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola. If not Manchester, he might have been persuaded to move to France and play for Paris Saint Germain. Barcelona refused his request and stated their belief that the clause had expired, meaning the only way Messi could leave was via a club paying a seven hundred million Euro release clause. Faced with a choice between taking his beloved club to court or accepting the status quo, Messi chose the latter. At the time, most analysts expected him to leave upon the expiry of his contract this summer. Despite Barcelona's performances this season being even worse than they were the season before, he's changed his mind. The suspicion is that at the age of 34, he's no longer confident he has enough left in the tank to succeed elsewhere.

Messi's contract decision means we'll never know if he could have adapted to the higher pace and greater physicality of the English Premier League or the more astute defensive tactics of Serie A in Italy. Recent football history is littered with forwards who scored goals by the boatload in Spain and then struggled to replicate their form elsewhere. Such is Messi's talent that he'd almost surely have succeeded elsewhere, but it's a shame that he never found the courage to prove it. Barcelona fans won't care about that, and nor should they. They'll be able to say that one of the greatest players in history chose their club and stayed there for his whole career. For Messi, though, it might be something he comes to look back on with regret when his playing days are over. He'll always be a legend, but could he have been as big a legend anywhere else? Sadly, we'll never know.

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