When he was 20 years old, he was still young and did not qualify for the national team;
At the age of 24, he was in good shape and talented, but he was turned away by a crazy coach;
At the age of 28, he finally ushered in his first World Cup, but he was replaced at a critical time by Bole, who had always believed in himself, and finally hated the quarterfinals!
The 32-year-old no longer has enough physical strength to compete in the World Cup.
Argentine fans often lament that God has given him unparalleled talent, while Argentina has not given him the stage to play. It's a pity for his mysterious straight pass, a pity for the breakthrough of the ballman's unity, a pity for the strange floating free kick that floats straight in front of the goal!
Looking at the photos of the youth team, he also smiled brightly, but the twist of fate finally made him gradually lose his smile and lose his words!
But he never said a word, never defended himself! He was so silent, and the silence was heart-wrenching!
His name was Juan Romain Riquelme, a genius with a bitter melon face, a master destined to be lonely.
He was the end of an era of football. Riquelme's football is may football, quiet and melodious, looking like it is about to reach the blazing and dazzling of June, but always falling on the last hurdle, failing to reach the peak, perhaps the era that belongs to Riquelme has ended before it has arrived.
It's hard to say who's right and who's wrong. The peerless swordsman is always lonely and self-assured, otherwise it is impossible to cultivate that unique sword, you can't imagine Ximen Blowing Snow slaughtering dogs in the downtown every day, he can only walk alone, white as snow, blowing blood and condensing eyebrows, and then, collecting the sword and returning the sheath. In my memory, Argentina produced two extraordinary geniuses, one is Maradona, and the other is Riquelme.
The conflict between Riquelme and Maradona is a clash of personalities and a confrontation between two philosophies of football. If a game requires Riquelme and Maradona to play centre-back to win, Maradona will definitely transform into Ayala, and Riquelme may still be his Riquelme. In the 2006 World Cup, in order to deal with Riquelme, the German core Barack pulled Riquelme to dance the veneer dance throughout the game, completely sacrificing his personal attack, until Peckerman could not see that Romi was entangled, and instead of him, Barak freed up to deliver that fatal assist. He couldn't do it without Riquelme, and the last thing he could sacrifice was his style of football. From the football itself, Riquelme is an artist and Barack is a good craftsman at best. But victory brought the latter to the glory stage, and what was left for the former was a cold back.
It may be said that Riquelme is not playing football, but style. The shortcomings of Riquelme's style of play have been said to be indiscriminate: the turn is too slow, the confrontation is insufficient, and the defense is almost zero. But in Riquelme's dictionary, using inspiration and precision to bring the opponent's unexpected moments to his silent death is eternal boldface. Football is a realm, anything can be lost but the realm cannot be lost. Deep down, Riquelme must have scoffed at Barack, the German captain who had been seen as Zidane's first midfielder, football saboteur and coolie after Zidane. And Maradona won't. He will not forget the tears he shed after losing the World Cup final in 1990, and the German core Mateus, who was also obsessed with him. Tears had told him that winning was the first. This may be why Maradona can be a sign of the times, while Riquelme can only be doomed to loneliness.
In the words of argentine star Baldano: "If we had to get from A to B, most people would choose a six-lane highway to get to their destination as soon as possible." Riquelme would opt for a rugged mountain road that would take him six hours instead of two, but was a beautiful one. Now that Bianchi is in hiding and Palermo is about to retire, who else can accompany Riquelme to enjoy the scenery along the way. Lonely artists will eventually leave, and where will the artists on the next court be?
Riquelme didn't reach his culmination. In the hip-hop era of football, Riquelme's elegant round dances ultimately failed to conquer the mainstream football world. Zidane has won his time, he proved that elegance and slowness can overcome muscle and shoveling, can be integrated into the modern system. Riquelme didn't, he was just the last master of the classical era, his workshop with art stacked on top of each other, and the machines outside the window roared and overwhelmed.