The reigning Ballon d’Or winner has won FIFA’s player of the year award five times. Messi holds records for goals for Barcelona, goals in a calendar year and hat tricks. He was the first to reach 300 goals in La Liga competitions. Messi’s playing contract is loaded with bonuses for such feats, which help make him one of the highest-paid on the pitch. Main sponsor Adidas capitalize on their superstar with its Messi-icon line of shoes and apparel and launched a “Backed By Messi” campaign which sees the Argentine endorse ten of the game’s brightest talents.
The above para is what is written In the Forbes Magazine about Lionel Messi , A world-class player playing in one of the best clubs in the world and one of the highest paid athletes, Most of us would give anything to be In Leo Messi’s place today. But at the top is it all Sweet Victory of Success and glory?? Well Not Quite as it has been seen in recent Months.
The Most recent Controversy is regarding the Prison Term given to Messi. So after all those eye-catching Headlines Let’s dig a little deeper in this controversy. So Messi is accused of creating a string of fake companies in Belize and Uruguay to avoid taxation on €4.16m (£3.2m) of image rights earnings between 2007 and 2009. The main thing to Note here is the case is of the year 2007 when Messi was a mere 19-year-old, Now u don’t expect a 19 year Old to who doesn’t have much formal education to have all the knowledge of how the tax system works. He as he said during the trial focused all his attention on playing football and left these work for his lawyers and his agent which happened to be His dad. The case first came to light in 2013 and as soon as the notice was sent to Messi, the first thing he did was pay the taxes amount due plus interest to the Authorities. Now in most cases that would have probably been end of the case (For example former Real Madrid and Spain’s midfielder Xabi Alonso case.) But since it was Messi the case was dragged into the Court, and a trail held for nearly 3 years,and when the Verdict was passed he was given a 21 month prison term, Now a thing to Point out here would Spain’s Iker Cassilas had a similar trail on almost identical charges but he was let off with just a fine, but in Messi case once again the punishment was exaggerated. The trial of Messi went ahead despite him paying the largest amount as taxes to the Spanish government to become the highest Tax payer of the Whole Spain.
But this all has been done in a Foreign Country , Messi must be loved by People back home in football crazy Argentina,Right? after all he is their leading Goal scorer . Well not quite, It’s true that he has millions of fan back home who worship him as their hero,But back home he also has a small but a very vocal group of ultras who are against him and are trying their best to pull him down.
It’s a very Popular fact well Known that despite being offered to play for Spanish national team he choose to reject it and play for his home Country. And what does he did for his Country?? He wins them the U-20 World Cup and an Olympic Gold Medal, He takes them to the final of Three major Tournaments in 3 years, He scores the highest numbers of goal for his country and what does he get’s in return??? He is called a traitor by his own home fans, With some media of his home Country asking for his removal from the national team. There have been incident involving Leo’s family too , his family has been attacked several time in or en route to the stadium. Now just imagining same thing happening in India to Sachin , There would have been huge Uproar throughout the country. But Messi still decide to ignore all these and play for Argentina Untill recently when after the defeat to Chile in PenaltyShootout in the final of Copa America Centario. He finally decided to quit the National Team, But that also didn’t went well with certain section of Argentinians who labeled him as a traitor and a quitter who left his team in Dark. So despite leaving he still couldn’t satisfy the fans demand.
Now if Messi had decided to stay in Spanish National team he would have won a world cup, which is the only trophy that eluded him so far and which many believe is must for him to stake a claim as the World Greatest Trophy . But he choose to stay by his country side and try to win Trophies for them.
So as they say everything appears bright unless you go near them, Similar is the case of Leo Messi life, It appears all Bright unless someone look really closely. Maybe among all these the little boy from Rosario just wants to play some carefree football again forgetting all about criticism, Taxes , Trial , with a single aim of putting the ball in the net.