As Messi prepares to leave Barcelona

Lionel Messi is Barcelona. His decision to sever ties with the club seems almost fratricidal — he was signed by Barcelona when, at age 13, he was desperately small for his age due to growth hormone deficiency. The cost of treatment was high, and Barcelona footed the bill and made him big — a giant. Barcelona didn’t do it in a spirit of pure benevolence — Messi was a precious talent, and there loomed the possibility that he might go to Real Madrid. Barcelona’s wager on Messi paid off — both became giants.

Messi has been grateful. Thus, his desire to exit Barcelona points to the extreme frustration he feels with the state of affairs at the club — bungled signings, lack of cohesive planning, sacking of coaches, dipping performance. To top it, there was Messi’s spat with the club’s sporting director, Eric Abidal, after Abidal alleged that the players “were neither satisfied nor worked hard” under coach Ernesto Valverde. Messi reacted with anger, but his playing level never dipped. However, Barcelona didn’t win a single trophy this year, were hammered 8-2 by Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarters. That could end up being Messi’s last hurrah with Barcelona — a shocking result after which divorce seemed imminent.

Messi is Barcelona, but he’s also Rosario, the Argentinean city he was born in. Some hopefuls of Rosario have rekindled the faint dream that Messi would return and play for the local team, Newell’s Old Boys, which he had joined as a six-year-old.

Messi is also of the World — his fans across the world could very easily outstrip the combined populations of Argentina and Spain, the two countries he’s played in. Possibly the greatest footballer of all time, Messi exemplifies the height of human — not Argentinean or Spanish — sporting excellence. He can be an inspiration to all human beings.

Talking of inspiration

Azhar Ali, the Pakistan cricket team captain, played a match-saving innings in the third Test against England. Pakistan lost the series, but Ali’s innings helped them salvage pride. Before the game, it was reported that Turkish TV series Ertugrul was “being used as an unlikely motivator” for the team. In fact, Ali merely answered a pointed question on how he was inspiring the team. “Ertugrul, everyone is watching it here… Obviously, in the whole team, there would hardly be a player who’s not watching it,” he said.

Ertugrul carried prime ministerial recommendation — Imran Khan believes that Ertugrul shows that “we too have a culture — it too has romance, it too is part of history”, the implication being that Turkish TV dramas such as Ertugrul represent Pakistani culture.

Another Pakistani cricketer, Shahid Afridi, said: “Watching the Turkish series Dirilis: Ertugrul, I’m just overwhelmed by their achievements and victories that came as a result of their faith in Allah and the empire of justice which they were able to establish as a result of. May we be like that once again.”

Afridi seems to think that “we”, Pakistanis, are Turks.

Early this year, Imran enthusiastically gushed, in the presence of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan: “Turkey is a country which… for centuries we’ve had… Because for some 600 years, Turks ruled Hindustan.” Turks of the modern Turkey didn’t rule India — their cousins, who also emerged from modern Turkmenistan, did.

Imran is either unaware of or ignores the conflicts in the Ottoman Empire, which was founded by Ertugrul’s son. Saudi Arabia, UAE and Egypt banned Ertugrul, seeing it as an attempt to impose Turkish hegemony over Arabs.

“Who are we?” is a question that troubles us; religions and myths provided the early answers. It’s best answered by science: We are animals, not created or designed, but who have evolved into our current state. Our origins are in Africa. Under the skin, we are the same. Europe is largely comfortable with the scientific answer. In the subcontinent, though, various ethnic, religious and social differences, and centuries of conflicts among them, stoke anxieties. The scientific answer is rejected.

Imran or Afridi, great cricketers, would do well to inspire cricketers and people in general with cricketing advice. Azhar Ali, too, can seek inspiration from Lionel Messi of Rosario, Barcelona and the World.