OPINION: "Je suis Messi... or if I can't be, I am by the Barcelona star's side"

For a few games now we have been seeing the best version of Lionel Messi. And not just of this season, but we can also include past seasons in that. Messi is fine. He's more than fine. He's smiling. And it is a sincere smile. Despite his years, it is the smile of a boy. The ball, the football is everything to him. He doesn't need everything else. He needs much less. With a ball, he has everything. 

However, to feel comfortable, Messi needs everything around him to function. And at Barça, in recent weeks, very little has been functioning well. Whether by chance or not, elections have been called, Luis Enrique seems to have found his best team, Emili Sabadell (not liked by many of the players, not just Messi) has left the club, Cristiano Ronaldo played the clown when he picked up his third Ballon d'Or...

Leo has grown. He knows that he has a lot of football left in his boots. A lot. And a lot of goals. Lots. He knows that many more individual and team awards are waiting for him. And he has recovered his best version, together with happiness, and a smile which is contagious.

To be more succint: The Great Messi. The Best, without doubt. He has his defects, on and off the pitch, as all us mortals have, but he has more virtues than anyone. It's for that reason I would like to say "Je suis Messi" (I am Messi). But I'm not. Not even remotely; not even in my dreams. But if "Je Suis Messi" means that I am by your side when they accuse you of being a little dictator, of killing Kennedy or when they blame you for unemployment in Spain, then yes, proudly, I am Messi.