Aimar and the “highest praise” he gave Messi with a unique phrase | OneFootball

Despite being in the final stage of his career, Lionel Messi continues to garner praise from both friends and strangers. Thus, the original phrase dedicated to him by Pablo Aimar, assistant to Lionel Scaloni in the Argentine National Team, was not surprising, but it did generate a reaction, due to the curious comparison that the Clown made between the Flea and scenes from everyday life.

"Messi never failed you. I used to say, for example, that Barcelona played on Saturday at 4pm and he never let you down. You could go to the cinema and the movie was good or not, but Messi never let you down. Neither did a Federer, or a Jordan. I think this is the greatest compliment someone can have: sometimes I think he plays thinking there is someone who has not seen him yet," Aimar expressed, during an agricultural congress in Tecnópolis.

The truth is that, aside from the original comparison, Aimar also revealed details about how they work within the coaching staff of the Argentine National Team to keep the players who have won the Copa America twice and the World Cup once competitive and at the highest level.

Thus, he took as an example an exercise called "11 against 0", to work on the players' positions and recognition of the field: "The purpose is for you to know where your teammates have to be when each of the others has the ball. It is done because it is a great effort during the match to know where your teammates have to be. When 'the lights go out' in a match, you throw it somewhere else and it unconsciously helps you to know where your teammates have to be."

At the same time, when asked about the management of internal "crises" that can occur in any squad, Aimar was clear in stating that "a good atmosphere is not indispensable nor is it a guarantee of success", although he did not downplay the importance of good humor within the group. However, he also emphasized the importance of luck: "I never downplay the importance of luck, because many times you called it with work, you looked for it or you were generating it with positive energy. But sometimes you make decisions in a second and the biggest one was the 'yes' at the beginning."

That "yes" to which Aimar refers, is the one that he, along with Scaloni, Walter Samuel and Roberto Ayala, gave to Claudio Tapia to take over the command of the Albiceleste, after the departure of Jorge Sampaoli after the 2018 World Cup in Russia. "It was a very big gamble to say yes to being in charge of the players we see today in the National Team," he reflected. Fortunately, both for Aimar and for Argentine fans, that yes was the correct decision.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.