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#2 Winning the World Cup with Argentina is a tall order
Footballers are often gauged on their ability to take their game up a notch in the big occasions. Lionel Messi has been doing that for a very long time now. In fact, he single-handedly pulled an underwhelming Argentinian squad to the FIFA World Cup 2018 with a hattrick in the penultimate qualifying game against Ecuador.
This year, Argentina are not, by any stretch of the imagination, favourites to lift the World Cup. Quite recently, they were eviscerated by an ebullient Spain team in a friendly. The scoreline read 6-1. Messi did not play the game and that goes to show how poor this Argentina side is without their main talisman.
Even with Messi in the squad, there's only so much a team that relies so heavily on one player can do. Though they have an enviable attacking lineup, they just can't seem to get everyone to click together.
Also, there are far superior teams in terms of squad depth and sheer quality. France, Germany, Spain, Belgium and Brazil are all looking strong heading into the World Cup.
If Messi is to win the Ballon d'Or after not garnering anything of note in the Champions League, Argentina will need to better their heroics from the 2014 World Cup. And that is a tall order going by the way things stand right now.
