The discreet charm of Messi, by Francesc Peirón

Shirley Temple knew firsthand what it means to break out as a prodigy. “Being a star is a complicated life, especially at four years old,” he said.

Temple was a precocious actress. As a child he participated and succeeded in thirty films. She is considered the best girl artist. His brilliance, however, faded with adolescence.

Lionel Messi falls into that category of prodigious children. Being a runt he already did virguería exercises with the ball. But unlike Temple, the star forged in the Barça youth academy overcame the impact of the fleeting, withstood the passage of time and has been astonishing the world of sport, and football in particular, with his art for two decades.

Although he has left ample evidence that he is an introspective guy, little given to the verbiage and posturing that is so common, it does not seem difficult to venture that he will be living in contradiction due to the situation in his soul team, as he described it to the commemorate the 125 years of Barça.

Surely, on the one hand, he feels indignation with the global ridicule to which President Joan Laporta has subjected the institution thanks to his style in which falsehood and hesitation are mixed. The Olmo case is difficult to digest.

At the same time, perhaps he is laughing his head off at certifying the discredit of that president who kicked him out of the club with a total lack of respect for his career. This led him to be a expat in Paris and then in Miami, the capital of the other America where he has found the promised land.

So you can thank Laporta’s incompetence that US President Joe Biden awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the US, on Saturday, along with a host of figures from all over the world. sectors, among which were the Spanish chef José Andrés, Hillary Clinton. Denzel Washington, Michael J. Fox., Bono, Jane Goodall, Ralph Lauren, Magic Johnson or Anna Wintour, the lady of the fashion industry who starred in a curious scene: she received the distinction with her face revealed, without her eternal dark glasses.

“Let me say to each of you, thank you for everything you have done to help this country,” the host stressed. What things. After a lifetime, Laporta kicked him in the ass and in four days Biden elevates him.

But the Argentine player was the only one absent from the list of the 19 winners. He also did not send anyone to represent him. A scheduling problem, the White House explained. Messi sent his gratitude. This is the crack and the discreet charm that comes with being the best.

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