Messi Magnanimous, Not Mean.

On Sunday evening, Barcelona took another step closer to the La Liga title in an enthralling 6–1 win in which each of the feared front three of Messi, Suarez and Neymar scored, with the the Uruguayan, Suarez, scoring a hat trick. The third of his goals came as a result of Messi passing his penalty so that Suarez could pass the ball into the net.

Myself and many others see this as genius from the Argentine. Messi, who could have wrapped up his 300th goal for Barcelona if he had scored an orthodox penalty, was so team-spirited, that he set up Suarez for his hat trick. To me, this is a sportsman being a gentleman, which is something that we tend to see little of nowadays in football. It was a moment to savour as we watched in awe of what must be one of the best teams in our generation.

I have read though, that some of the press are branding this action of Messi’s, as “disrespectful.” What he did could be seen as cheeky, you can empathise with the Celta Vigo players, who may argue that they were already losing at a resounding 3–1, so the Catalan side didn’t have to show off. This view is understandable, but not a reason for pundits and the press to rip apart the Ballon d’or winner.

My thinking about the whole situation is that we should not complain when a moment of brilliance, like this, comes up. We should celebrate it. After all, this is what makes sport great, giving those who do it freedom. Luis Enrique, the Barça manager, has given his team just that and that has put them at the top of the league. As a result of freedom, we look at moments such as Dustin Brown volleying a tennis ball behind his back to win a point, with joy, Max Verstappen overtaking around the outside of at speeds of 200 mph, with disbelief and indeed would we have seen the full potential of Lionel Messi without his freedom to create a moment of magic that he does in every match?

What would have been disrespectful is if he had passed the penalty to Suarez who had passed it back to the goalkeeper. That would be against the game of football whereas what we saw on Sunday was pure football, they scored from a penalty, just in a different way. It was as clever as a dribbling skill or a nutmeg.

In conclusion, we, as sports fans should not suppress or complain about what Messi did in Camp Nou at the weekend, this would be killing one of the great things in sport, that is the liberty to be creative and express oneself. Sports stars, especially those at the top of their game, need to constantly add fresh and dynamic aspects to their game. This is so that they keep improving and capture the attention of the audience that they know watch and copy their every move. So don’t label what happened on Sunday as contemptuous, flippant or bad-mannered, label it as something else to appreciate from the magnanimous magician that is Lionel Messi.

This post was originally published on my Medium Site on 16 February 2016