By Xavier Cromwell-McDowell
Stratford High School
Messi has finally won the World Cup, so why did he say he is not retiring from soccer?
Obviously, he is not the first athlete to do this, look at Tom Brady he retired for 40 days. But why did he come back? I mean Tom is the greatest player in football history so why is he still trying to win championships at the age of 45?
Because, as a player he does not want to stop playing, or as my father said, “the greats never want to finally say that they are done playing the sport because they love the game and their passion is so strong that if they are still able to play and move at a high level they will.”
I mean look at Kobe the only reason he retired was because he was injured and even then he had came back and played another year or two before he finally called it quits.
So, that brings up the question when will Messi finally hang up the cleats because before the World Cup he said he would be retiring from playing with the Argentinian National team, and now after he has won he said he still has more left to play with them.
Will Messi be able to play in the 2026 world cup? I mean he will be 38-39 and soccer is not a sport where you can take breaks. Will his body and his love of the game be able to win him another World Cup? Because that is all Messi is playing for at this point he already established that he is the best in the world with this World Cup victory.
Certain Athletes quit because they feel bored or in the case of Barry Sanders, he retired because he didn’t have the heart to go out and get tackled every play. Did he love the game? Sure, but he felt that he wasn’t playing the game for himself anymore. Or look at Jim Brown, he went to Hollywood because he was bored and at the time he was the greatest player in the NFL.
So what will Messi do? Will he be able to break the “curse” and win another championship or World Cup before he finally hangs up the cleats for good.
