In Guillem Balague’s fantastic book, ‘Pep: Another Way of Winning’, Balague devotes a passage to the four time Balon D’or winner – Lionel Messi, entitled, ‘Messi the man-eater’.
It tells how the shy and innocent-looking Argentinean single-handedly motivated the departures of a host of big-name players that have attempted to establish themselves as Barcelona stars in recent years.
In order to facilitate and maximise the progression of perhaps the greatest footballing talent the world has ever seen, the Barcelona board have strung up a list of high profile casualties along the way, including Samuel Eto’o, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Bojan Krkic.
To give you an insight into how such situations materialised, I offer an example posed by Balague in his book: In the first few months of Ibrahimovic’s time at the club, he was played through the middle of the attack and received much of the plaudits for Barca’s run of good performances. Despite results going well, and all seeming happy at the club, Messi felt it was time to intervene.
The Argentinean confronted Guardiola who was the manager at the time, and warned that either he played as a number nine or he didn’t play at all. When Pep asked what he was supposed to do with Zlatan (the player that had cost the club €45m plus Samuel Eto’o), Messi replied adamantly, ‘I play here, or I don’t play at all; stick the others out on the wing.’
As Barcelona prepare to welcome their most recent big money signing to the club, there exists some skeptical murmurings that Neymar may just turn out to be the latest addition to Messi’s already star-studded victim list.
These concerns are heightened due to the fact that the two players are used to being the focal point of their team, with all attacking moves going through them. Barcelona legend (and high-profile sceptic of this transfer) Johan Cruyff, recently stressed ‘there cant be two captains on a ship’.
However, fellow Brazilian Dani Alves, who was instrumental in bringing this move about, has claimed that Cruyff’s concerns are unfounded, stating that the young star from Santos is humble, hard-working and will accept his role in the team.
Whilst ‘humble’ isn’t a word that would typically spring to mind when regarding the 21-year-old who infamously motivated the sacking of Dorival Junior from his position as Santos manager, following an incident where the striker wasn’t chosen to take a penalty kick, one has to hope that he has matured since the birth of his child in 2011.
To the outsider, it may seem like an odd move for Neymar. Having spent his entire career thus far as a national superstar, dominating the domain of celebrity as well as football, his next move sees him join a team where no one feels a star.