3 things that might happen if Lionel Messi fails to win the Copa America
Everybody knows that Lionel Messi is one of the greatest footballers of all time. He closed the 2018/19 league season on a high, scoring 36 goals and providing 13 assists. He won the La Liga title despite losing to Liverpool in the Champions League semi-final.
Unfortunately, his record with the national team continues to be a stark contrast to his achievements at club level. Messi has led Argentina to 4 finals so far. Sadly, he failed to win any of the 4 finals, and he seems set to endure another disappointment in the current Copa America.
Argentina suffered their worst ever start to a Copa America recently, losing 2 goals to nil to Colombia. They also failed to beat Paraguay in their second match of the competition. Luckily, they defeated Qatar while Colombia beat Paraguay. Hence, Argentina finished 2nd in their group.
Despite progressing to the knockout stage, Argentina are still not favorites to win the tournament. Messi also failed to register any goals or assist in Argentina's 2-0 win over Venezuela. However, a Copa America exit will surely impact Messi's career. Here, we will take a look at 3 things that might happen to the Barca maestro if Argentina suffer another humiliation.
#3 Many will question his captaincy once more
No one could doubt Messi's quality as a player. He had another mesmerizing spell with Barcelona, and no other player came close to him in terms of goal involvements last season. However, his leadership quality has long been questioned.
Barcelona have not been able to lift a single Champions League title since they appointed Messi as the club's captain in 2018. They lost to AS Roma and Liverpool in 2017/18 and 2018/19 Champions League respectively.
The Catalans got knocked out in the second leg despite having a huge advantage from the first leg. Argentina national football team have also endured a bitter fate since Messi became their captain in 2011.
Messi guided Argentina to 2 Copa America finals as a captain. Unfortunately, Argentina endured consecutive defeats to Chile in both finals. These 2 defeats could be proofs of Messi's failure to provide sufficient motivation to his teammates during important times.
The Barcelona megastar also failed to win the 2014 World Cup after losing to Germany in the final. Now, Messi is still unable to lead Argentina to major international titles, and another Copa America defeat will do further damage to his reputation as a captain.