Lionel Messi Pays Respect to Argentina Soccer Legend

"Eterno," Messi wrote on his Instagram story over a photo of Maradona holding the World Cup trophy. The photo he chose bore a striking resemblance to Messi's own profile picture. 

The Inter Miami CF star spent much of his career in Maradona's shadow because of his failure to win a major trophy with Argentina. Maradona's "eternal" legacy is centered around Argentina's victory at the 1986 World Cup. 

The pressure on Messi to match it with one of his own led him to briefly retire from international soccer after consecutive failures at the 2014 World Cup and the Copa America in 2015 and 2016.

Such struggles even led Maradona, who coached Messi with Argentina at the 2010 World Cup, to question his leadership and say "Messi is Messi when he wears (the Barcelona) shirt, and he's another Messi with Argentina.”

Sadly, Maradona never got to see Messi finally get over the hump. He died in 2020 from a heart attack suffered while recovering from brain surgery.

Messi went on to lead Argentina to a Copa America title in 2021, the first of his career. La Albiceleste followed that by winning the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and the 2024 Copa America as well.

The late-career rash of trophies helped Messi escape the endless comparisons and allow soccer fans to treat them both with the reverence they deserve as legends of the game. Trophies may cement legacies, but as Messi showed on Monday, respect is "eternal."