Hasta El Gol Siempre

One of the best things in the whole world of football is a little off colour at the moment – Lionel Messi’s torn a muscle in his thigh. La Pulga is going to be out for around a month, and most immediately, will miss Barcelona’s Camp Nou showdown with Real Madrid this weekend. He can take some consolation, however, from the FIFA gong he picked up on Tuesday naming him as the second best player in the world during 2007. Oh – he also plays for the year’s best national side.

Slightly ridiculously, although not at all surprisingly, Kaká won the FIFA World Player of the Year award as he did France Football’s Balon D’Or last week. Winning the Champions League as a member of an all-round strong team is, apparently, how individual player awards are decided these days. There was at least a semblance of good sense this time, though – at least Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t also finish ahead of Messi in this award.

‘I was dreaming about the [Madrid] match. I would have paid to play in it,’ Messi told Spanish paper El País. ‘Now I’m thinking about recovery. Luckily, there are some exceedingly good players who can win the clásico. Although I can’t play, Barcelona have a lot of talent in the final third.’

In an interview with FIFA.com, Messi explained that although Barcelona failed to win any trophies during 2007, ‘On a personal level… I was able to gain a lot of experience, apart from any titles,’ and spoke of Barça’s desire to win everything going to make up for last season’s disappointment. Rather oddly, FIFA then went on to ask whether Argentina – who FIFA’s own ranking, released today, still list as the number one national side in the world - are prepared for the challenge of qualifying for South Africa 2010. ‘I see us as a very strong side who are becoming stronger. We’ve got a lot of time to work on moving forward,’ Messi replied, presumably aware that the selección’s opening performances in the qualifiers haven’t been universally praised back home, even before the loss to Colombia in Bogotá. You can read the full interview in an English translation here on FIFA.com (there are some differences in the passages I’ve quoted because I’ve taken them from the Spanish-language version).

Messi may have gracefully accepted a second-place finish to 2007, then, but there was no such need for the national side, who finish 2007 at the top of the FIFA world ranking, thereby (and these are the FIFA website’s words) ‘winning the title of “Team of the Year”.’ How much that will compensate them for not having won a trophy for 14 years and counting, however, is debatable.