Say what you like about the 2022 World Cup held in
Qatar but it produced some amazing football, especially in the nail-biting
final. The clash between Argentina and France, the defending champions was
filled with nail biting tension. It looked like a forgone conclusion with the Argentinians
leading by two goals to zero until the dying moments of the game when French
star, Kylian Mbappe produced two goals in the dying moments of the game and
then proceeded to match the goal by Argentina’ s captain, Lionel Messi, thus forcing
a penalty shoot-out.
While the result was heart-breaking for the French,
the victory was a nice send off for Mr. Messi, who is hailed as one of the
greatest players ever (GOAT) and yet, somehow the biggest prize in global
soccer always seemed to elude him. Unfortunately for Mr. Messi, he’s from the
country that gave us Diego Maradona, who is considered one of the Gods of
modern soccer. So, for all his achievements at the club level, the inability to
bring home soccer’s greatest prize meant that as far as most Argentinians were concerned,
Mr. Messi was a shadow of Mr. Maradona.
So, for Mr. Messi, this victory was a key moment for
him to come out of Mr. Maradona’s shadow and there is no doubt that as this is
being written, that life in Argentina is being focused on him. It took a glance
at an article in the Atlantic for me to understand that Mr. Messi’s triumph
goes beyond soccer.
Copyright – the Atlantic
The writer
makes the point that Mr. Messi’s moment of greatest success comes at what is
effectively the dying days of his playing career. Mr. Messi is 35-years-old,
which for a professional athlete is geriatric. Yet, despite his age, Mr. Messi
remains a force of the field and more importantly, Mr. Messi has managed to do
what very few superstars have managed to do – he’s evolved and ensured that whatever
success is more than just about him. At 35, he’s not as fast as he used to be
but he’s grown wiser and smarter in his playing style and how it gels with the
rest of the team.
There is no
doubt that there are geniuses in just about every field who can make the difference
between success and failure. In modern soccer, there was the example of Diego Maradona
who not only led Argentina to victory in 1986 but managed to bring an inferior
team to the final in 1990. In rugby union, there was the example of the late
Jonah Lomu, who cut through everyone’s defence like a heated rod going through butter.
However, modern
team sport is about strategy and while have a genius of the field can make the
difference, there is a danger of becoming over reliant on the single guy. After
1986, every team that faced Argentina had one clear strategy – contain Diego Maradona.
In rugby union, Mr. Lomu made headlines in the 1995 World Cup until he reached
the finals and the Springboks developed a strategy called – contain Mr. Lomu.
Unfortunately
for Mr. Messi, the strategy used against him in so many world cups were the
same as the one used after 1986. From the day the press started hailing him as
the world’s best player. Everything was about containing him.
So, for this
world cup, Mr. Messi made his team greater than himself and his contribution
was that of a brilliant conductor brining out the best in people rather that single
virtuoso. At 35, Mr. Messi wasn’t going to go toe-to-toe with the 23-year-old
Mr. Mbappe. He was going to use his team. Mr. Mbappe’s hat-trick was undoubtedly
phenomenal and he deserves the Golden Boot award for most goals scored.
However, the ultimate prize is not the Gold Boot but the World Cup.
This point isn’t
limited to soccer. I think of a law firm I was trying to solicit business from.
The Managing Partner made the point his goal was not to become the star
performer but to ensure that the cases went to the right lawyers in his firm and
that all his lawyers would grow become better lawyers thus ensuring his firm
produced good quality work.
Yes, super stars
in business are good to have just as they are in team sports. However,
businesses that have a strategy of working around a single star have a way of vanishing
when said star no longer performs like a star or retires or dies. Stars also
have a way of forgetting that the things that made them successful don’t last
forever.
As the writer
of the Atlantic article points out, just as Mr. Messi understood that at 35, he
had to evolve and be the best 35-year-old player, his Portuguese rival, Cristiano
Ronaldo was trying to play as a man ten-years younger and failed at it. Nobody
doubts that Mr. Ronaldo is a great player but at 35 he isn’t as sharp as he was
at 27 and its particularly noticeable at the highest levels of international
competition.
The same can be
said of people stuck in old paradigms and try to operate as they did a decade
ago. Technology changes, people change and the market changes. What was great a
decade ago may no longer be great in the current situation. So, as one should
always be self-aware and evolve in order to stay great as Mr. Messi did.
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