A living legend of Argentine football, ‘La Brujita’ Juan Sebastián Verón, took time to remember and talk about what Lionel Messi’s first speech was like as captain of the Argentina national team, within the framework of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. ‘La Brujita’ told details that had never been revealed before about the talk that today Inter Miami player in Major League Soccer gave it to his teammates, two days before his 23rd birthday.
The coach of said Albiceleste team at that time was another Argentine football legend., Diego Armando Maradona, who first awarded Messi the number 10 and later the captain’s ribbon. It was then for the third game of Group C against the Greek team, whose victory was signed by the goal scored by forward Martín Palermo.
‘El Jefecito’ Javier Mascherano had been the captain in the first two matches of the World Cup where the albiceleste collected 1-0 victories against Nigeria and then a resounding 4-1 victory against South Korea. With the classification already in his pocket, as well as the first place in the group, Maradona decided to make some changes and one of them was to rest Mascherano against Greece and that is how Messi was appointed captain and in the previous one he had the obligation to speak to his locker room companions.
Messi with the captain’s band
One of those who played in that match was ‘La Brujita’ Verón, who remembered that moment: “It got stuck at some point,” the Little Witch confessed in an interview with Juan Pablo Varsky in Clank!. “It is normal. It is not easy to speak in front of a group, especially in that situation. We don’t help him. It went well,” added the current president of Estudiantes de La Plata. Verón acknowledged that he has almost no contact with the now Inter Miami player. “I haven’t spoken in a long time,” he commented.
In this match that Argentina managed to win with a score of 2-0 against Greece, the current coach of River Plate, Martín Demichelis, opened the scoring in the 77th minute. Martín Palermo, for his part, sealed the result after dominating a rebound from the goalkeeper after a shot from Messi.
Verón in World Cups
Verón had played in the 1998 France and 2002 Korea-Japan World Cups, but he missed the 2006 Germany event., when he was going through a great moment at Inter Milan. At that time he was 31 years old and later headed to Estudiantes de La Plata, and being coached at that time by a former teammate, ‘El Cholo’ Diego Simeone was champion of the Apertura Tournament that year after defeating in the tiebreaker Boca Juniors, 2-1 in Vélez.
The level that Verón demonstrated was such that he helped the club win the 2009 Copa Libertadores and he earned a call among the players summoned by Maradona to play in the friendlies prior to the World Cup and that is how he finally earned a place on the final roster for South Africa 2010 at the age of 35, this being his last World Cup.
Argentina would later beat Mexico 3 goals to 1 in the round of 16 but succumbed in the quarterfinals. by a 4-0 win against the German team. ‘La Brujita’ continued playing for Estudiantes and won the 2010 Apertura Championship but did not wear the national team shirt again.
A historical fact
In 2012 he decided to hang up his boots, although he made two returns to professional football. low profile; the first in 2014 and the second in 2017 when at 42 years of age he played in 5 matches in the group stage of the Copa Libertadores and became the oldest player to play in the largest tournament in all of South America.
Keep reading:
Gerard Piqué’s account blocked due to investigations into the Spanish Super Cup held in Saudi Arabia
Former Liga MX player was attacked in a Colombian soccer match
Tennis player Novak Djokovic won the 2024 Laureus award from Messi, known as the “Oscar of Sports”