This World Cup, just like the 2010 and 2014 events preceding it, will be dominated by the narrative surrounding Lionel Messi and Argentina. You know the one: Maradona lifted La Albiceleste to the ’86 title (he was well-marshalled by Lothar Matthaus in the final, but we don’t speak about that) and Messi needs to do the same to earn our love and respect. It’s tired, untrue but extremely captivating.
Since its introduction in 1992 as a replacement for the European Cup, the UEFA Champions League has served as the world’s premier club tournament. The prestigious competition is where legends are born, and those legends don’t get any bigger than the players with the most career goals in Champions League history.
Today, ESPN published a Lionel Messi story by Sam Borden that’s scheduled to appear in ESPN The Magazine’s June 8 World Fame issue. The long-form article mainly concerns Messi’s off-field demeanor — he’s quiet, reclusive and prefers to express himself on the pitch.
The hype surrounding 20-year-old French winger Ousmane Dembele was largely quelled this season after a pair of injuries kept the kid sidelined for 27 games between September and February, but it was only a matter of fitness until the train’s wheels started rolling again.
A remarkably contentious — almost hilariously so — El Clasico ended 2-2, a result that won’t particularly bother Real Madrid but one that sees Barcelona extend this season’s unbeaten league run to 35 matches. If you’re a Real Madrid fan, Barcelona got away with murder; if you’re a Barcelona fan, Real Madrid got special treatment. So just another El Clasico, really.
It’s never a proper El Clasico without a bit of blood and thunder (coupled with some extremely cringeworthy theatrics), but a brilliant opening 15 minutes has been followed by some pretty pathetic (but extremely entertaining) bickering from both sides, culminating in a straight red card to Sergi Roberto just before the halftime whistle.
Four years is a good amount of time for a person to change.
So I decided to take a look at players who have played in a lot of World Cups and see their evolution every time they played in the world’s greatest competition. I picked welll known players in football (and DaMarcus Beasley for the USMNT fans) and what I learned was this: