Messi's Journey

             Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, also known as monomyth, is a path that many fictional stories follow. The journey describes 17 steps that heroes throughout fiction of all location and times go through, some examples of characters and stories that closely follow this journey would include Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, Simba from the Lion King, and Hercules from Roman mythology. Though the journey is a template of fictional stories, due to real life not being as perfect, I do think the journey of Lionel Messi, my favorite soccer player, follows this journey weirdly well. Specifically, his journey of him and his national team of Argentina. 

            Just for a quick context of who he is, Lionel Andres Messi was born on June 24th, 1987, in Rosario, Argentina to parents of Italian ancestry. From an incredibly early age, Messi showed a talent in soccer, he was signed by FC Barcelona (it is one of the world's best clubs) and moved to Spain at the age of 13. At the age of 18, Messi had already won everything at club level even before the beginning of the journey I would like to talk about. 

            Okay, now that you know a little bit about him, let's beginning his journey. First His call of adventure is to win the world cup, it is considered the biggest national trophy in soccer, Argentina had already won it twice before, but the last time they won was a few months before Messi was even born. There isn't exactly a refusal of the call by Messi, but due to being Italian descent, and moving to Spain at such a young age, Messi was eligible and could've represented the two other countries and refused the call from Argentina. The next three steps are fairly basic, I believe the "supernatural aid" is just the people (most likely family members) that convinced him to represent Argentina, he crossed the first threshold by going to the 2006 world cup held in Germany, and then enters the belly of the whale by getting on the pitch and playing his first game, in which he scored a goal. 

            I would like to switch the orders of the next two steps, so meeting with the goddess first, and the road of trials. One of the biggest problems I faced trying to connect Messi and the hero's journey together was trying to do these supernatural steps, even ignoring these parts and focus on the aid/someone that offers unconditional love is difficult due to it being too personal. However, I realized in the 2006 world cup, Argentina is being coached by Diego Maradona, who is considered one of the greatest of all time and practically viewed as God in Argentina. Thus, I chose him as the "goddess" as he is the one gave Messi the opportunity to play in the world cup. Maradona was also the one that led Argentina to their previous world cup in 1987. Unfortunately, they did not win the 2006 world cup, or the 2010, in 2014 Argentina reached the final but lost in the 113th minute of extra time to Germany, in 2018 they were knocked out by the eventual winners in France. Even in the Copa America, the national team competition for north and south American teams, between 2007 to 2019 Argentina were runners up 4 times out of the 6 times it was held, the most painful ones coming in 2015 and 2016 after losing the world cup final, Messi and Argentina fought to the finals in both years but lost in the same way (in penalties) to the same country (Chile). 

The constant heart breaks lead to the next step, which is Messi being tempted to retire from the national team. In fact, he did actually retire after 2016 then 2018 but came back on both occasions. Next, I believe the unfortunate death of Maradona in 2020 fits with "atonement with the father". In 2021 left Barcelona after 21 years, I believe that was the apotheosis step as even he said Barcelona was like his second home, but he now has live in Paris for his new club. Though this year did become good as Messi won his first international trophy in the Copa America.

    Now it is 2022, Messi is 36, so the world cup held in Qatar is almost certainly his last chance to win the last remaining piece to solidify him as the greatest of all time. The entire tournament was incredibly nerve wracking, but Argentina does make it to the final, the ultimate boon, to face the team that knocked them out last time: France. I think the next 4 steps corresponds to what happened in the match, Argentina was very dominant early on in the match, scoring 2 goals in the first half, however just when everyone thought it was over, France scores 2 goals in 90 seconds to even out the score (refusal of return). The game goes on to extra time, Messi scores from a rebound from one of his teammates but somehow France equalizes once again (magic flight). Now extra time is over, and penalties will decide the winner and loser, Messi scores the first and now he can't do anything but watch whatever happens, needing his teammates to secure the win (rescue from without) ...and they do, everyone on the Argentina team scores while 2 French players missed; thus Argentina wins their first world cup in 35 years and Messi completes his goal on the last try, becoming the greatest soccer player of all time (in my opinion).