Once you know you are free to express yourself as you like, you don’t need actually to do it.
From Soccer Against the Enemy, by Simon Kuper, a lovely book about the political and diplomatic ramifications of football/futbol/calcio/soccer.
One of the theories in Argentina is that Maradona is conflicted, happy to have a talent like Messi on his team but eager to not surrender his status as perhaps the greatest player of all time.
From the New York Times (who, as it turns out, does soccer coverage — go figure!), this gem of a piece about Lionel Messi turned up the quote above, which caught my eye.
There’s no doubt that Maradona is a bit of a loon, but it’s hard to imagine a situation where sabotaging Messi’s success in any way makes any sense.
Frankly, the way that Messi is playing these days, I’ll be astonished if anyone comes close to challenging Argentina in South Africa. They’re going to be scary.