'We Don't Want This Moment to End'

“I think I’m speaking more today than ever before, because I simply don’t want this moment to end.” Lionel Messi said this yesterday, as if giving voice to all of us. He stood before the Argentine fans for the last time, after scoring one goal and providing two assists in a 3-0 victory over Benin, but the statistics no longer mattered in that moment. Messi was saying goodbye to the jersey he had worn for 21 years, and with it, to the fans who had watched him as a child, then seen him grow up before their eyes—losing, stumbling, returning, and finally lifting the trophy they had long awaited together. “Not coming back here again will be incredibly painful,” he said, and the pain instantly transferred from his voice to the stands. The Monumental Stadium crowd did not want to hear the word farewell, nor did they wish to applaud the end, because some stories, even if they have happy endings, are ones we want to live through detail by detail. Adding, while wiping away his tears, Messi said, “I would have liked to play for my entire life,” a sentence perhaps more concise than any other in capturing everything we experienced with him. A whole generation cannot imagine football without expecting from him a touch, a pass, a goal, or a “magical” moment that only he could deliver. Now, as he said, Messi will sit on the other side among the fans who, despite themselves, will continue to search for him on the pitch. As for us, who stayed up late into the early hours of the morning yesterday to see him one last time in the Argentine national team jersey and to hear his emotional speech, we echoed his sentiment that none of us want this moment to end.