Category Archives: 3 Messi

No, what really surprised us about this story was how out of touch it made us feel. The common thread over the last few years in the Messi-Argentina saga is that la Pulga doesn’t play well for his national team because of essential questions of belonging, identity; umpteen times and more we’ve heard how estranged he feels, how he’s been in Catalonia so long he’s hardly even Argentine, that this is the problem. No matter how outdated this viewpoint is (Time magazine published a hopelessly passé story on Messi not being accepted in his homeland a few months back) Pegamequemegusta was sure that, no matter how false any of that was, over there Messi was essentially viewed as a European – as opposed, say, to other squat, rotund, picante, mouthy powerhouses, clearly South American, like Tevez and Suarez. Although everyone obviously knew he was Argentine, we thought he qualified for honorary, non-lazy sombrero-wearing–wetback/sudaka status in the same way Henry had won gentleman status in England. In short we thought the press had granted him an exemption from his class, that there was always a leather-bound chaise waiting for him at the club if he wanted it. Continue reading →