Former Barcelona assistant coach Angel Cappa has accused Lionel Messi of losing his passion for football.
The 67-year-old Argentine, who worked at Camp Nou under Cesar Luis
Menotti in the 1980s, claims that his compatriot's performance in
Saturday's 3-2 defeat at home to Valencia offered the clearest evidence
yet that the Blaugrana No.10 has fallen out of love with the game.
Cappa felt that Messi seemed slightly more motivated in Wednesday
night's Copa del Rey win over Real Sociedad but nevertheless maintains
that the 26-year-old attacker is these days a shadow of the player who
claimed four successive Ballon d'Or awards.
“To play football you need boundless passion, like Messi had, like the
great players like [Diego] Maradona ... any important player in the
Primera Division: Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets,” Cappa told La Xarxa.
“You need enormous passion, you need that energy that comes from an absolute love of the game.
"[On Wednesday against Sociedad], he participated [in the game] a little
more, but the day they played Valencia, I couldn’t understand how a
player could play football so dispassionately.
"And especially him, because if we look at a game of his from three or
four years ago, there was that craziness, that passion that he had for
playing.
"And I don’t know why or for what reason, but that is coming to an end."
Cappa says, though, that it is obvious that the drive that turned Messi
into a superstar of world football is now conspicuous by its absence.
“That love of the game, that passion that makes him go and look for the
ball on the left, on the right, in the middle, take players on, beat
one, then two ... I see Messi has lost that,” the 67-year-old declared.
"He has extraordinary quality, he’s wonderful and at any moment he can
come up with a wonderful play, but it’s as if he has been married for 15
years to football and got bored of it.”
Cappa also suggested that Messi's malaise is merely the result of grander problems at Camp Nou.
“I’m talking about Messi, but Barcelona have also lost that passion," he
argued. "Before, you couldn’t miss even a second of the 90 minutes
because there was always something.
"Now Barca have the ball, sure, and they do things now and again, but
they have also lost that boundless enthusiasm they had before.”
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