One thing that might have been noticed by some is what @talesfrmthecrypt pointed out in the Hive Premier League Discord.

"It’s amazing how one player (Messi) can overshadow the fact that Argentina are probably the dirtiest side in the whole tournament"

Argentina wasn't only the dirtiest side in this World Cup, but also during the Copa América. Their antics weren't even only on the pitch but carried on into interviews, side fights, and even actions committed during their World Cup celebration, whether on the pitch after the match, in the locker room afterwards, or even when the squad finally landed in Argentina. Argentina was a sore winner if that is a thing. Messi is included.

Still, I sympathize with this team.

Let Me Explain

In late March 2019, Radio Club Octubre conducted an interview with Messi in which many things were talked about. This is an excerpt from it:

"It is hard, my son is always looking on YouTube and saw a video, he asked me why in Argentina they want to kill me! But I like to keep going. I still want to win something with the national team. I am going to play all the important games. We already reached a World Cup final [in 2014] and this is not that easy".

I don't want to share the entire interview, so you can check it out the thread highlighting what he said here. What I want to focus on is the following bit

"They Said I Was driving the AFA, that I Was driving that 'club of friends' formed by Di Maria, Higuain and others, were the best in the world at that time. That makes me angry. People buy all that they said about me and then, I am a son of a bitch. But are all lies".

My question here is, how do you take a selection of players who take very few years into their careers' beginning to be millionaires to become so miserable?

During the Asian Cup in 2007, Iraq was suffering a civil war that left everyone scared. You could literally be killed at any moment in certain areas if your name was Omar or killed in another if your name was Ali or Hussien. During those times, the entire nations put all their miseries on the Iraqi national team, including a woman whose son had died and said she wouldn't bury him until the team returned with the cup. You can learn more about that through Tifo's video covering that time period.

When I look at Argentina, in specific, I see what is happening in Iraq happening to them. A poor country with few resorts, one of the countries most in debt and it is a country that has taken the most loans, just a miserable situation. Argentinians have taken all of that and put it on those players. Can you name one country that was demanded to win the World Cup as much as Argentina?

The National Team's Debt to Argentina

That's what Argentina, generation after another, had to live with ever since Maradona won that World Cup. But, this was taken to the extreme in 2010 when we saw players like Di Maria and Gomez crying like little children when their team wasn't even losing yet.

The idea is that just because they have Messi, Argentina's national team owes the people the World Cup. Go through each line in the teams in the World Cup before it started and tell me if you believe Argentina's backline, midfield, and even the attack, with Messi, was among the top 5 squads in that World Cup.

Those aren't even my thoughts, betting sites had Argentina ranked 6th and below when it came to teams' chances of winning the World Cup. Still, Argentina was the most demanded team to win the World Cup. It's like a smug boss' answer when you ask them how something can be done

"I don't care, just do it"

It's going to be a long time before Argentina has another great player, so the players have to do it no matter what. All while saying that Messi will never be like Maradona, which with all due respect to Maradona's footballing abilities, he wouldn't even dare to dream to have half of Messi's accomplishments, awards, and trophies, whether individual or team-wise.

Imagine having to carry that pressure from people frankly saying you will never be the greatest in their country because of exaggerated stories about how someone won single-handedly.

When All Fails, Football Is The Answer

Argentina announced bankruptcy more than once, it is the country most indebted to the World Bank Group. A country with around 20% of people below the poverty line, a percentage that's increasing, almost doubling from one year to the next. So, it's just a failed state, that's when they look to football as an accomplishment. Messi and co. had to endure the wrath of that one year to the next, for at least 12 years. Messi and co. watched players like Higuain get bullied for years knowing that they were next, and in most cases, they were already bullied.

How many times have you had a mental breakdown or lashed at work because of pressure? Now magnify that pressure until it equals that coming from an entire nation in the case of Argentina, and more than half the footballing world in the case of Messi. That's the answer to my question, how millionaires became miserable, how the Argentinian national became the dirtiest side in international football, and why I sympathize with them the most.

The sad part is that the title itself wasn't really worth the suffering for Messi. But, more on that in a different.

In Conclusion

The behaviour of Martinez, De Paul, Paredes, and even Messi isn't excusable, but I believe that they're the natural result of 12 years of the pressure of carrying an entire nation's hopes, wrath, and anger. Argentina's players constantly said that they were going to war this World Cup, and that's what it was. It wasn't a sport, it was essentially a fight for survival that turned De Paul, Mac Allister, and Enzo Fernandes into players rivalling players like 2018 World Cup Kante, Pogba, and Matuidi.

Perhaps the biggest indication and proof of this can be found in Messi's words when backtracked his intentions to retire

I want to continue living a few more games being world champion.

As it really feels like someone who has enjoyed very little and suffered so much and now just looking to enjoy the result.