CARLI LLOYD and LIONEL MESSI

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CARLI LLOYD AND LIONEL MESSI

"It is fatal to enter a war without the will to win it."
   - General Douglas MacArthur

In a team sport such as soccer, the concept of best player is elusive. Nevertheless the tradition has established the attachment of the media and the general public to such subtle concept. In that context, Carli Lloyd and Lionel Messi are the best women and men players of the world respectively.

Still, there are colossal differences between one and the other. Let examine the facts:

Carli is a women and Lionel is a man. Carli was born and lives in the USA while Messi was born in Rosario Argentina but moved to Barcelona, Spain during early adolescence. Carli attended Rutgers University where she completed a bachelor degree in Exercise Science and Sports while playing collegiate soccer. Lionel never attended college. Carli plays for a modest women’s pro team in Houston, Texas and makes about 70.000 dollars a year. Lionel plays for Barcelona FC and earns more than 100.000 million euros a year. Carli sings the American National Anthem, while Lionel doesn’t do the same with the Argentine National Anthem. Both Carli and Lionel are extremely skilfull players. Carli won many competitions with her youth clubs, high school and College teams, plus she obtained twice the Olympic gold medal with the US National team and recently won the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Lionel on the other hand, won many top competitions (nationally and internationally) with his pro club Barcelona FC, but only the 2008 Olympic gold medal. Unfortunately, Lionel’s Argentine National teams failed to win any international tournament whatsoever. Both Carli and Lionel do volunteer work on behalf of humanitarian causes. Probable more than 90% of the world population knows and recognizes Lionel as a “celebrity”, but only a very few of them know who Carli is.

Those are some differences and similarities between Carli and Lionel, but the crucial contrast is related to recent events. In 2015, and almost simultaneously, the Women’s FIFA World Cup and the CONMENBOL Sudamerican Cup were played. The Argentine squad with Lionel as captain was one of the favorites to win the Sudamerican Cup, a tournament that Argentina hasn’t won since 1993. Carli’s US team was not the leading candidate to reach the finals of the 2015 Women’s FIFA World Cup, that the US won for the last time in 1999.  As it is public knowledge now, Argentina made the finals of the 2015 Sudamerican Cup and lost it against Chile after a weak performance by Lionel’s team. Instead Carli’s US Women National team defeated Japan 5 to 2 to obtain the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. In the finals Lionel did not shoot on goal even once (but scored the only kick from the penalty mark for his team). Contrarily, Carli scored 3 of the 5 US goals and was the MWP of the match and the Cup. She proved beyond any doubts that she deserves to be the best player of the world.

Then the question that annoys us is: how come, Lionel is unable to do it, as Carli did it? The answer is probably (I will take the risk of saying certainly) not simple: there are many different factors involved. But, nevertheless, there is one major reason that is obvious and painful. By understanding such reason, it may help Lionel be successful in the future. The reason is lack of real determination. Carli has tremendous leadership spirit and was able to motivate her struggling team to extract from them the highest level of performance. She was committed to win the Cup and made all the efforts and sacrifices to reach such goal. She pushed her team to play to win the final game. And she took the responsibility to motivate and demonstrate (she scored three wonderful goals in the first 16 minutes of the final match), she fought to the end to have the opportunity to hold the desired trophy. She clearly stated before the game "We didn't come here to take second place. We came here to win it, and there was something different in the air with these last few games with our team”. “If you don't have an aim, I kind of wonder, why are you playing? I want to be the best. Whatever I do in life, I want to be at the top. I don't want to be 'Yeah, I was a member of the team.' No, I'm going for the top”. Carly had both the confidence to do great things and the necessity to believe that she was required to continue proving for the team more than anybody else.

On the other side of the spectrum we have Lionel’s performance in the final match vs Chile: he had a forgettable day to the point that he was not even running in the second half of the match. For some reason, he gave up. Somebody must help Lionel understand that his well-deserved privilege and honor to be the best male soccer player of the world carries with it the responsibility of leading and performing with his National team in crucial moments. Soccer goes beyond being a game or a sport; it has major social, economic and political implication. And leaders must take responsibility to lead to victory or they must step out. That is why Churchill and not Chamberlain commanded Great Britain during WWII to defeat Nazi Germany. Leaders cannot afford the luxury of revealing negative feelings or show fatigue. They must looked and act confident. Furthermore, there is important to remember that the opportunities in life come very seldom and it is necessary to take advantage of those unique opportunities. One cannot be constantly planning and preparing but not finishing the job. It is mandatory to complete and terminate the project. Winners can’t blame others for mistakes made, neither they can be apologetic. Winners are people that are self-aware about their own mistakes; they understand that it’s their choices and decisions that brought them there. Winners don’t use excuses, they find solutions.