Messi: Cristiano is not a RIVAL

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE ARGENTINE SUPERSTAR 

By Utkarsh Gulati

FC Barcelona are set to face Olympique Lyon in this year’s UEFA Champions League Round of 16 in a bid to add another trophy in their cabinet, but with their domestic rivals and European giants Real Madrid eyeing for a historic fourth UCL trophy in a row, the pressure to perform is immense on the Catalans this year.

We sat down with the five times Balon D’or winner and the all-time goal scoring forward of FC Barcelona Leo Messi. The calm and collected Argentine is pretty confident about his claims of Barca going all the way through in the tournament this season despite getting embarrassed by the hands of AS ROMA last season in the Quarter Finals, a stage they have failed to qualify from for the last three years. “What happened last year was unexpected. ROMA got the better of us for we were not offensive in the second leg and that came to haunt us. We have learnt from our mistakes and are ready to break the voodoo.”

Barcelona are currently on a great run of 10 games unbeaten with Messi playing a pivotal role for his team’s success in majority of the games despite being ruled out for three weeks earlier at the start of this season with a broken arm. “We are happy to be on top of the table at the moment, its hard playing matches week in week out but that’s where the best teams stand out from the rest for it helps the players develop a momentum to get us going and go out with a winning mentality.”

The FC Barcelona captain admits the fight for the league title isn’t as competitive this year for the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo, who moved to Turin to join Juventus for $100 Million left a big void in the Real Madrid squad.

“Real Madrid is a great team and one can never rule them out for the quality of players they have.”

Despite finishing fifth in the Balon D’or rankings last year, Messi has not let his head drop and is once again leading the race for the European Golden Boot; Messi claims he isn’t worried about the individual prize. “Success of the team is always my first priority, be it Barcelona or Argentina. I will not say I don’t like individual prizes, but they will always come second to me. As for the Golden Boot, players like Ronaldo, Mbappe and Salah are outscoring others in their respective league, so you get the picture.” Messi was adamant that the race for the golden boot will go on till match day 38.

The Argentine helped his teammate Phillipe Coutinho by letting the Brazilian take a penalty against Valencia in Copa Del Rey last week. “Every player goes through bad days in their career when nothing goes right and they start to lose confidence eventually, that’s what the case is with Coutinho. He had already scored a header earlier in that game and I believed a brace would help him get in the zone once again for he is a fantastic player.”

Talking about his rivalry with Cristiano, Messi was adamant that there was no rivalry from his side. “I never considered Cristiano a rival, it’s the media and the fans that like to pit players against each other. We are nothing more than colleagues and I do miss his presence for the both of us gave each other a push to perform. Juventus is a team with great history, and Ronaldo will fit right in for the hardworking player that he is.”

The Argentine who is yet to play for the national team is pretty optimistic of his team’s chances in the Copa America this year and explained why he put his national career on hold. “I don’t say this often but I do miss playing for Argentina, but it is too much of a stress. We had three chances year after year to lift a trophy but we failed and ever since then a sense of complacency has taken over the squad. I hope we overcome the embarrassment we suffered in Russia and bring glory to Argentina this summer in the Copa America.”