He wasn’t alone, either. The room teemed with Messi shirts, just as the streets have in the early days of the World Cup. His famous No. 10 is ubiquitous, whether it be on his old Barcelona jersey, his current Inter Miami kit or that of the national team.
“We’re all Messi fans. He’s the best player in the world,” said Michelle Lemmon, who made the 258-kilometre drive with her four children from her home in Kirksville, Missouri, to Union Station in Kansas City on Monday to celebrate her 42nd birthday.
Lemmon, who played college soccer at a Catholic school after captaining the boys’ team at her high school, will be cheering for the US throughout the tournament. But her dream matchup, Lemmon said, would be for the Americans to face Argentina in the final.
“It’s hard. You’ve got to like him,” Lemmon said. “I’m nervous that this might be his last World Cup, so we’re very excited. Honoured that they chose Kansas City as their home base. To have the World Cup champions here, you know, from 2022 is amazing.”
Messi seeks to join Pele as repeat World Cup champion The list of greatest soccer players in history often begins with Messi and ends with Pele, the Brazilian star who not only took Brazil to World Cup glory but was instrumental in growing the game in the US during his time with the New York Cosmos.
What would tie the two even tighter? Argentina successfully defending its title.
Only twice before has a nation been a repeat winner of the World Cup. Italy did it in the 1930s and Brazil did it in 1962, when despite an injury to Pele in the group stage, the Canarinho went on to beat Czechoslovakia in the final in Chile.
France nearly made it three repeat winners, but Argentina denied that four years ago in a shootout in Qatar.
“What happened back in Qatar was just amazing. The whole country united,” recalled Messi’s longtime national teammate, Nicolas Otamendi. “We have that engraved in our minds, and it’s just injected us with the strength to keep trying. There’s no relaxing. We need to keep working with that level of humility that is required in these types of competitions.”
There are few more humble superstars than Messi, whom Otamendi described as “simple man that just focuses on training.”
“He’s also a competitive animal,” Otamendi said. “You want to be there with him, supporting him, serving him, and laughing our hearts out all the time. As I’ve said, when the ball is rolling, that’s when you need to press, unite and come together as a family on the pitch.”
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