Robert Lewandowski and Lionel Messi head all players at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar for WALKING
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Lionel Messi broke the hearts of Australians when he led Argentina to a World Cup round of 16 victory, and he was walking most of the time.
The 35-year-old superstar, a seven-time Ballon d’Or winner for the world’s best player, may be getting older, but he’s still as savvy as ever.
Statistics from FIFA’s post-match summary reports show that Messi is leading all participants in this World Cup in the greatest distance covered at walking pace (0-7 km/h).
All four of his games make the tournament’s top 10 list for distance covered, but given that he’s picked up two Man of the Match awards, it’s safe to say that’s not exactly an indication of ineffectiveness.
Lionel Messi, pictured celebrating after Argentina beat Australia to advance to the quarter-finals on Sunday morning, proves that what’s between the ears is just as important as the total distance covered.
Quite the opposite, in fact, with England legend turned commentator Rio Ferdinand calling his performance against the Socceroos “the best we’ve seen in this World Cup so far, by a mile.”
In a winning performance that included the opening score and six shots on goal, Messi covered 8.59km, the second-lowest for the starting team, 4.75km of which he was walking.
That number is significantly higher than his teammates, who covered much more distance overall.
A chart on BBC Sport ahead of Argentina’s match against Australia shows Lionel Messi has three of the best total distances covered, adding a fourth during the round of 16 match.
His other three distances on foot for the tournament, 4.99 km, 4.73 km, and 4.62 km, all ranked in the top 10.
So is Messi lazy or just smarter than everyone else?
The latter is resoundingly true.
The Paris Saint-Germain superstar does nothing when he walks, his former Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola explained.
Lionel Messi, pictured at the height of his Barcelona career, is never idle, even when walking, former mentor Pep Guardiola has explained.
‘He’s [Messi] seeing now, he is walking. That is what i like the most. He’s not out of the game, he’s in it,’ he said in the Amazon Prime documentary ‘This is Football’.
Move your head: right, left, left, right. He knows exactly what is going to happen. But his head is always like that. [Guardiola turns his head left and right]. It is always moving.
‘He’s not running, but he’s always looking at what’s going on. Smell where the weak points of the rear four are. At five, ten minutes, he has the map in his eyes, in his brain to know exactly where the space is and what the panorama is.
‘It’s like being in the jungle and I have to survive. And he knows that if I move here, here, I will have more space to attack,” said Guardiola, who Messi has previously said is one of the biggest influences on his incredible career.
Messi (centre) sprang to life on the edge of the box in Argentina’s victory over the Socceroos on Sunday morning, blasting the ball through three defenders to score the game’s opening goal.
This does not mean that Messi does not intervene when the situation warrants it, as Ferdinand commented after his performance against Australia.
“He almost pretends he’s not interested and then he comes to life,” Ferdinand said. “What he can do is open the game from any position in the park and that’s the difference between him and everyone else,” he said on the BBC’s coverage.
It is also not related to his age, surprisingly. This is a Messi trait that spans many years, noting that what’s between the ears counts as much as GPS data.
In the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2014 Brazil tournament, numerous articles from the time pointed out the way in which Messi approaches the game; walking but never idle in his mind.
Lionel Messi, who has seven Ballon d’Ors to his name, walks more during the match than almost any other player on the planet, and even has time to smile in the heat of battle.
“Messi has figured out how to win games by moving less than everyone else,” noted soccer expert Ken Early said during the 2018 tournament.
The research showed that his effectiveness as the world’s best player came from creating space and spending time in the highest value spots on a pitch.
‘Can we say that Messi gets a lot of space by not chasing the play? Yes, that is precisely what our research shows,” Luke Bornn, a data scientist at Messi’s then-club Barcelona, said during a sports analytics conference.
The distances covered by Messi in this World Cup have only been surpassed by the Polish striker Robert Lewandowski.
Tired of walking Leo? Messi sucks big squat during Argentina’s win over Australia
The 34-year-old Barcelona superstar is the only player other than Messi to appear multiple times in the top 10 distances covered during a game list, even though he covers many more kilometers than Messi.
The Poland captain, who has so far refuted rumors that Monday morning’s 3-1 (AEDT) loss to France will be his last World Cup game, has been the team’s most consistent player throughout the tournament.
The lanky forward, who has scored 78 goals in 138 appearances for Poland, covered an impressive 10.84km in his side’s 2-0 win over Saudi Arabia, 5.20km of which was brisk – the most top of the tournament and an impressive feat for an aging striker.
He’s really leading from the front, but he’s doing it in different ways than many would expect in the age of fans consulting GPS data and stats like sports scientists.
Poland captain Robert Lewandowski is the only player other than Messi to appear multiple times in the top 10 list for walking distance during the match. That being said, he covers a much greater total distance than Messi.
In this case, Ferdinand believes that Poland coach Czesław Michniewicz is doing his striker a disservice by using him incorrectly.
‘We watched the game against Argentina. You have the best striker in the world…give him the chance to have scoring chances,’ he said on the BBC’s coverage.
‘I am very sorry for Lewandowski against Argentina. He was so isolated. That is the approach we need to see tonight,” added coach Mauricio Pochettino.
Either way, it goes to show that there’s more than one way to skin a cat, and these two veterans thrive on it.