Has Lionel Messi lost his passion for soccer? The Argentinean responded to his critics with a dominating two-goal performance against Sevilla on Sunday.
The Barcelona superstar's work ethic was previously questioned by former Barcelona assistant coach Angel Cappa earlier this week; he claimed that he did not see the "craziness" in the superstar's play any longer.
"You need enormous passion, you need that energy that comes from an absolute love of the game. [On Wednesday against Real 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," he stated, according to Goal.com. "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.
"I'm talking about Messi, but Barcelona have also lost that passion," he added. "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."
While Messi did not respond to the comment verbally, he responded on the field with two goals and one assist against Sevilla; the two goals were his first from open play in the Spanish League since September.
More importantly, Messi looked "passionate" on the pitch and played with tremendous precision and speed.
Cappa's criticisms of Messi and Barcelona are not new. Many pundits have noted that the team's tiki-taka has lacked precision in previous years as the team is no longer pressing as high up the pitch to retain ball possession. However, Barcelona remains atop the Spanish league thanks to its talent.
"I would never risk speaking ill of Messi. Unconsciously, people who talk about him are in fact playing with his pride, and if you touch the pride of the best player in the world... the rival pays for that, and that's what happened today," Barcelona coach Gerardo Martino said in response to Messi's performance, according to Goal.com. "He is always decisive, even if it's just to draw rivals defenders inside. He becomes the focus of the other team's attention to such an extent that he creates space for others, so his involvement is always positive."
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