Messi, Saudi And Power Of The Underdog– Mike Awoyinfa Column

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The story of the powerful underdog fueled by faith, self-belief and a can-do mentality to spring surprise and defeat the superpower is as old as the Bible. It is in the story of David and Goliath where a young lad took on the mighty Goliath and defeated him on the battlefield against all odds, bringing victory to Israel hitherto tormented by the Philistines led by their boastful giant, causing the women to sing and dance on the street, taunting their king and saying: “Saul has killed a thousand enemies; David has killed ten thousand.”
At the global level, we saw it in the Russia versus Ukraine War when an underdog in the quest for survival, took on the superpower, defeating them on the battlefield and chasing them away from their fatherland to the point that Russia had to resort to using drones to destroy strategic infrastructural facilities and plunge Ukraine into darkness in the bleak midwinter. Now, Ukraine has turned into Nigeria where generators are the only reliable means of power supply.
In the arena of marketing and brand building in Nigeria, we saw the power of the underdog when a homegrown brand, Glo, a latecomer into the Nigerian telecoms ecosystem took on the entrenched multinationals and won the battle for the hearts of Nigerians, deploying superior technology and per-second billing strategy which gave them a competitive edge.

And in the field of soccer, we saw it all in the ongoing World Cup when Argentina, the third-ranked side in FIFA rankings, led by their legendary captain Lionel Messi, and touted as the tournament favourites, was walloped 2-1 by Saudi Arabia, the 51-ranked underdog in one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history.
For Argentina, it was déjà vu all over again. As far back as the 1990 World Cup in Italy, Argentina suffered a similar calamity in the hands of Cameroon. Just like Argentina have Lionel Messi, the best player in the world and still was defeated, so did they have Diego Maradona, the then best player on earth, and still lost one zero to Cameroon through Francois Omam-Biyik who took a leap of faith into the air and headed the ball downwards to beat goalkeeper Nery Pumpido in the 67th minute to score an earth-shattering, iconic goal which I can still picture. It was the biggest upset then in the history of the World Cup.
Now, Argentina has been handed another embarrassing rude shock in the hands of an underdog which makes football the unpredictable beautiful game in which you underrate an underdog at your own peril.
On the morning of the Argentina-Saudi Arabia match, I told my wife “It’s going to be Argentina 9, Saudi Arabia 0.”
“That is impossible,” she replied, boasting: “A thousand Messi can never beat Saudi today.”
How absolutely right she was! After Messi had scored through penalty in the first half, the Saudis came back to score two quick second-half goals which they successfully defended till the last whistle. On that historic Tuesday morning, I joined the Saudis and the world at large in jubilating, thanking God for the victory of the underdogs, the dark horses of Saudi whose time it was. I remembered Ecclesiastes: “The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.”
Looking back at the Argentina-Saudi encounter, we have technology to thank. To me, VAR was the man of the match. But for this technological innovation, Argentina would probably have sneaked its way into victory, using the infamous “Hand of God” as it happened in 1986 in Mexico when Diego Maradona controversially punched his way into scoring the most remembered goal in the history of the World Cup. A goal which he described as the “Hand of God.”
Unlike Maradona who was plagued with controversies, Messi is such a gentleman. Ironically, I see him as a top dog yet an underdog who should win a World Cup but hasn’t. He is someone you pray to turn the World Cup on its head into Messi’s World Cup. So far, his World Cup dream is one nightmare frustrated by ill luck or what could be called the Messi curse. People wonder: How come a supernova who plays so well at club level fails to find his feet when he wears the blue and white jersey of Argentina?
This is how one sports journalist, Jasmine Garsd sees it: “For years, Messi’s performance with the Argentina national team was nothing short of tragic. And the worse he played, the angrier people back home got. Fans demanded to know: why did he perform so well for Barca, in Europe, but so poorly for Argentina? There is a whole cottage industry of theorists and commentators dedicated to investigating the matter, who have suggested everything from Messi’s own identity crisis being to blame, to the more plausible fact that Barca’s team is simply better at supporting his genius.
“The fact of the matter is, Messi has spent most of his career trying to win with Argentina, struggling to conquer the affection of his own people, and failing miserably at it.
“That all seemed to change under the guidance of young new coach Lionel Scaloni, who carried Argentina into a historic victory at La Copa America in 2021 (that’s a major South American Cup.) To say hopes were high for Messi and the Argentine team as they headed off to Qatar would be an understatement. The team was widely seen as a strong contender to make it far in the tournament. There was also a looming deadline: Messi, who is now 35 years old, recently announced this, was going to be his last World Cup. For Messi, what is at stake is not just another title under his belt. It’s his chance to be a hero back in a homeland that has always shunned him. It’s his last cup.”
My prayer and hope is that the defeat by Saudi Arabia will be the coffee that Argentina need to smell, wake up and bounce back from the jaws of defeat to the great expectation we have for Messi to win with Argentina. Then can we say: At last!