Why i think Messi chose to retire and then come back

Like many in the world I was also surprised when Lionel messi chose to retire after reaching a fourth final and then failing to win the trophy. But it still felt a bit off to me and for a long time I never really had an idea as to why, and I would like to stress that this is just an opinion and many of you are free to agree or disagree with my theory.

So here it goes, at the time when Lionel Messi had reached the final and lost his long time rival Cristiano Ronaldo had just achieved national team success with his national team at the euros. So immediately the comparisons started to flood in. How is it that Ronaldo did what messi couldn’t do after all so many within the Lionel Messi camp would say that Messi’s achievements are much better than Ronaldo. And it just so happened that the Ballon D’or was fast approaching.

This meant that Ronaldo might just take the prize away from Messi again, so immediately the first thing the Messi camp did was to divert attention and avoid massive criticism of Messi by dropping a bomb shell announcement. The great Messi has left the national team, this allowed many in the sports world to claim that the new coach must do anything possible to bring him back, as well as so many teammates both in club and country stating how great of a player he is.

This whole time however it was aimed at making people feel sorry for Messi as opposed to looking at if he is truly an effective player for the national team. And then suddenly after only one meeting with the national team coach, Messi who decided to retire after losing 4 major finals decided to come back. In my opinion that was curious, you cant take a decision to retire and think about it for so long, only to reverse it at the first meeting with the coach. That man must have some serious negotiating tactics in order to do that with only one sit down.

And now as the event approaches the angle is focusing more on his club form and the focus n his national team drop turned into him rising like a phoenix and returning to help his country. In my opinion it was a master plan to avoid any undue criticism and something that so many people in the public eye do. They create an event that distracts people from a topic they know they will be called out on. The Ballon D’or is closely approaching and I would be very surprised if Messi took the prize home this time.