Copa America 2015: Messi‘s time to hit it big for Argentina

Lionel Messi is almost undoubtedly the most talented footballer ever seen either by this generation or the ones past.

So many (older) people have mentioned Pele, Diego Maradona and even Alfredi di Stefano, who led Real Madrid to their first five Champions League triumphs, but in this millennium, Messi has proven and continues to prove that he is miles ahead of his contemporaries.

However, all that can be ascribed to club football with Barcelona while true greatness (no particular index for measuring this) has been ascribed to those footballers that carried their nations to cup conquests.

Messi almost got to that platform in 2014 when he pulled Argentina into the final against Germany but his team painfully lost 1-0 though he was named the best player of the tournament, an award he himself disagreed with.

Back to the present, Messi, unbelievably is yet to win any senior trophy with Argentina though he has won the FIFA U-21 World Cup in 2005, the Olympic gold in 2008 (ranked as U-23) but is yet to lift a major trophy with La Albiceleste.

Can he then right that wrong in Chile? Yes, he can with the stellar cast of supporting players like Sergio Aguero, Angel di Maria and Carlos Tevez. Whatever they had in mind, Tata Martino and his team were surely given a wake-up call on Friday as Paraguay fought back from being two goals down to hold the No.3 FIFA ranked team to a 2-2 score line.

Argentina’s next match is against Copa defending champions, Uruguay on Wednesday and this is one match that will be feisty. It is now that Argentines will want to see the Messi, they see on television playing for Barcelona, and afterwards greatness beckons if he pulls another rabbit out of the hat.