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

Despite being in the final stage of his career, Lionel Messi continues to earn praise from both fans and critics alike. Thus, the unique phrase that Pablo Aimar, assistant to Lionel Scaloni in the Argentine National Team, dedicated to him did not surprise, but it did generate a reaction, due to the curious comparison that the Clown made of the Flea with scenes from everyday life.

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

The truth is that, apart from the original comparison, Aimar also revealed details about how they work within the technical team 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 field recognition: "The purpose is for you to know where your teammates should 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 should be. When 'the light goes out' in a match, you throw it somewhere else and it unconsciously helps to know where your teammates should 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 detract from the 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 there are times when you make decisions in a second and the biggest one was the 'yes' at the beginning".

That "yes" Aimar refers to is the one he, along with Scaloni, Walter Samuel and Roberto Ayala, gave to Claudio Tapia to take over the Albiceleste, after the departure of Jorge Sampaoli after the 2018 World Cup in Russia. "It was a 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 right decision.

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