Despite the ups and downs of Lionel Messi’s international career, the Olympics have consistently provided the modern icon with clean success. After starting his famous career at the tender age of 21, the Barcelona talisman won the Olympic gold medal in Beijing in 2008.
With Sergio Aguero, Angel Di Maria, and Ezequiel Lavezzi, in addition to the budding potential of Lionel Messi, Argentina had a plethora of attacking options at the 2008 Olympics. This La Masia product had not yet reached his full potential at Barcelona.
But his brief time spent learning from Barcelona legend and team captain Joan Roman Riquelme clearly accelerated his development.
Tokyo 2020: Why is Messi Not Playing in Olympics?
After a string of encouraging outcomes leading up to the Summer Olympics, Argentina arrived at Tokyo 2020 with high expectations.
With a roster full of up-and-coming stars, La Albiceleste stepped up to the ultimate sports event in place of more seasoned competitors.
One of the best players of all time, Lionel Messi, is skipping the Olympics to play for Barcelona. The U-23s, led by Fernando Batista, have excelled under his leadership.
His group has already qualified for the Olympics by winning the Conmebol Pre-Olympic Tournament and the upcoming Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.
Numerous Argentine geniuses have blossomed during Batista’s rule. More significantly, though, he consistently picked the same players.
To ensure a strong team dynamic heading into the Olympics. Lionel Messi did not participate in this or the Tokyo 2020 Games.
Messi or Ronaldo? Who Has More World Cups?
Despite amassing enough hardware to fill two museums, Messi and Ronaldo have yet to win a World Cup. Even though Messi has a record seven Ballon d’Or (Best player in the world) trophies and Ronaldo has five.
Neither has won the World Cup, despite being two of the most frequently searched-for topics on Google. The 37-year-old Ronaldo and the 35-year-old Messi may never get another shot like they do in Qatar.
Messi is set to make his fifth World Cup participation in Qatar, and he has scored six goals in 19 games at the tournament. CR7 has appeared in four World Cups and has scored seven times for Portugal in those 17 games.
Conclusion
The FIFA World Cup is widely recognised as the most important sporting event worldwide. As a result, there is no need for two global competitions including the best players from all countries. Like the U-20 and U-17 World Cups, the Olympics has become a showcase for promising young athletes.
