The G.O.A.T. Association 🐐

On the day of the World Cup final I made an Instagram story post, opining that it would amuse me to see Argentina lose the game, along with a picture of Messi.

This drew flak from a number of people, who replied to my story.

I also saw numerous people posting on their Instagram stories about hoping Messi wins the World Cup. Then people posted about Messi being the G.O.A.T. after he won. A lot of these people hardly watch football nor support a team that is pro-Messi.

These are interesting observations. It’s not so obvious why people do these. Why did so many not-very-football-inclined people show a strong predilection for Messi?

Being a Liverpool fan, I found no sufficiently compelling reason for me to support Messi. And I find Argentina an unlikable team, especially after their match against the Netherlands and with characters such as Emiliano Martinez. Also I support Argentina’s South American rival, Uruguay. Moreover I have some antipathy towards Messi after he lost the Copa America Final and retired from international football because of that. He was then not even 30 years old and had been serving as Argentina’s captain for several years.

So naturally I rooted for France in the final. I do not have a prior French bias—I rooted against them for all their other matches in the World Cup, plus WC18’s final against Croatia.

Furthermore, I do not buy the narrative of letting Messi “complete his career” by finally winning the World Cup which he “deserves”, as many football pages suggested. It’s a comforting narrative if you’re a fan of his, but there’s no such thing. Teleological stories conform to how humans like to think but not to the way the world works. No one deserves anything. Whoever wins, wins.

Focusing back on our main question, why did people show such strong support for Messi?

The first explanation is that those people have always been Messi fans. I do not find this plausible. Most of those people are not even football fans. You can’t be a serious Messi fan if you’re not a fan of the sport he plays. Also they only expressed support for him around the time of the World Cup final, not even during the prior stages of the World Cup. Denying their self-proclaimed status as football fans is rather audacious. Unfortunately, there is basis to my claim. Their whimsical nature is seen in the following ways:

1. Their largest commitment as a “football fan” is reposting the final scoreline graphic published by their club’s official page, strictly only when their team wins.
   
   
2. When they see other people deride Messi, they denounce those people for having poor sportsmanship. They lack awareness of well-grounded reasons to oppose Messi winning the World Cup (e.g. being a Uruguay or Real Madrid supporter), evincing their deficiency in football comprehension. Also, they have a blinkered view of sportsmanship.

The most unthinkably farcical thing is that some of the people who express support for Messi are purportedly Manchester United fans! To truly diehard United or Real Madrid fans, not supporting Messi is about as ironclad a law as the zeroth law of thermodynamics. Plastic fans!

A second theory is more probable. Superstars like Messi and Ronaldo are not just excellent football players. Their immense stature as athletes has shaped them into brands. Driven by image motivation, brands form part of people’s identities and people associate or dissociate themselves with brands. Associating oneself with Messi can be intended to send a signal of the image you want to portray to others.

Humans are hardwired for social signalling, to strive to maximise their perceived individual value to a social group (amidst myriad constraints). That has been the case before the first Homo Sapiens existed and remains so in the age of Instagram. With the tournament being in vogue, some people aim to signal that they are following the World Cup Final. Using Messi as a means to that end is a very safe bet to earn net goodwill.

My final hypothesis has to do with bandwagonism. It’s the most appropriate explanation for people who don’t know much about football, did not watch the other World Cup matches and only jumped on the World Cup bandwagon when it’s the final. When people lack knowledge, they jump on the bandwagons of easy-to-recognise icons, such as Pessi Messi.

What do you think?

And who do you prefer, Messi or Ronaldo?