Messi and the World Cup’s Inconvenient War
A few years ago at a European soccer ceremony, French star Eric Cantona delivered a rather bizarre speech while receiving an award — a monologue about science, eternity, accidents and war (among other things) that left many in the audience visibly confused, including the two megastars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. One joke that circulated at the time was that Messi was confused because he doesn’t understand English, whereas Ronaldo was confused because he does.
While attending a ceremony at the White House on Thursday night, Messi seemed to understand enough English to clap when President Donald Trump spoke of the ongoing American war on Iran, and what he described as the good job “the greatest military the world has ever seen” was doing there. The Argentinian, one of the most celebrated players of all time, has never been known for his political stances, but was attending an event honoring his team, Inter Miami, which won the Major League Soccer Cup championship in December.
Video of the event sparked controversy among soccer fans, who consider either Messi or Ronaldo the greatest player of this generation of stars. The two have won multiple “best player” awards, competed against each other in the Spanish league with Barcelona and Real Madrid and won multiple Champions League tournaments in Europe, though only Messi has won the World Cup. Ronaldo attended a White House dinner in November alongside the Saudi crown prince (the Portuguese star plays for Saudi club Al-Nassr), where he spent time chatting with Trump and others in his coterie, including Elon Musk.
Back in Argentina, the photo reignited the perennial debate over Messi and Diego Maradona. Many Argentinians decried Messi’s complacency over a government that has deported thousands of Latinos, contrasting it with Maradona’s fierce anti-imperialism and identification with popular causes. Critics also highlighted Messi’s apparent inconsistency, as he and his teammates refused to attend a ceremony at the Casa Rosada (the seat of Argentina’s national government) to celebrate the 2022 World Cup victory under the progressive government of Alberto Fernández.
Those who have experienced the disappointment of meeting their heroes in person probably shouldn’t be looking to soccer stars for moral guidance, but the latest controversies around two godlike figures in the world of soccer highlight growing unease over the upcoming World Cup, which will be hosted this summer in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, has grown snivelingly close to Trump in an effort to shield the World Cup from negative influence, bestowing on the president the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize and inexplicably showing up at Gaza-related conferences, even signing a deal with Trump’s vaunted Board of Peace. All these have led to soul-searching in the soccer world over its intersection with politics, and have sparked demands for ethics investigations into Infantino’s ties with Trump.
The war on Iran has already sparked tangential problems for the World Cup. Iran has qualified for the tournament and is scheduled to play Belgium, Egypt and New Zealand in California and Seattle. But Trump this week said he “doesn’t really care” if Iran plays in the tournament, the sort of interference that an uncompromised FIFA would have condemned and sanctioned. Iraq, which is fighting for a place in the tournament in playoffs scheduled for late March in Mexico, has already said it is unsure if its team can even travel there amid airspace closures, jeopardizing its second-ever World Cup berth.
The controversies will ultimately cost Messi and Ronaldo nothing, but the war will have real consequences for Iranian athletes. At the Asian Women’s Cup on Monday, Iran’s national team stared ahead in silence during the national anthem in quiet protest. They were labeled “wartime traitors” by a state TV presenter.