Days after receiving the seventh Ballon d’Or of his career, Lionel messi gave an interview to the French magazine France Football in which he spoke about his career and his time in the Spanish League, where, he assured, competing with Cristiano Ronaldo helped him grow professionally.
“With Cristiano we have had a competition for years within the same championship. It has been wonderful and it has helped us both to continue growing in our respective careers, but without necessarily being pending. I just wanted to surpass myself to be the best in general, not to be better than someone else, “said the Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) player.
Messi, who at 34 years old is experiencing for the first time the experience of being part of a club that is not Barça, where he has developed his career, speaks in the French press about his bad loss and the bad moments that he has gone through with this character that he has “since he was little”.
“I’ve never liked losing. I’ve learned … I’m not going to say I’ve gotten used to it, but I’ve learned to accept defeat. You cannot win all the time. I have lost on many occasions but it always hurts me not to reach my goals, “he commented in the interview.
He confesses that before the birth of his children he could spend a lot of time locked up and alone after a defeat, but with his arrival he has learned to relativize, “to forget what happens on the ground.”
“As a child I hated losing and I have grown up with that mentality. Always wanting to win, all the time. Not only in football, in all games,” he explained.
He also reveals that he regretted his attitude in 2006, when at the age of 19 he won the Champions League for the first time from the bench and, after the victory, he went alone to the locker room instead of celebrating with his teammates.
“I’m sorry. I was not aware at that moment of what I was experiencing. I only thought that I had not participated,” he said.
Messi, who talks about his humble origins and the hormonal treatment that he began to receive as a child and that motivated his departure to Barcelona in order to pay for it, defines himself as an orderly person in his professional and private life.
“I have always liked routine. I think it has helped me achieve everything I have achieved, “he argued.
Regarding his play in the Argentine national team, he confessed that he has never been bothered by being criticized for his lack of leadership since does not compare with Diego Maradona, although he explained that in the past he was annoyed by “other critics” who had “nothing to do with football.”
“I am happy with all that I have lived, although sometimes I have to admit that I would like to go unnoticed, enjoy my family without people recognizing me“, defended the player who ensures that” never “has sought to be the best.
“I’m content to be considered and cited as one of the best players in the world. I would never have dared to imagine or dream of something like this. But I don’t give that much importance to all that. It doesn’t change anything for me to be the best or not, “he added.
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