Fascinating original take on the issue du jour, week, and month if not year and decade. Generation too? Picking up on the unexpected dimension of danger associated with great talent, I’d offer this possible counter in connection with Messi. Unlike, say, Christiano Ronaldo (his main rival as football superstar throughout most of his career), Messi is a superb and somehow low-key and humble team player who does not intimidate his teammates. On the contrary, they clearly enjoy playing with him, which makes them play looser and smarter and better rather than freeze up with nerves. It helps that Messi’s pinpoint passing, including through traffic, opens up the game for them. Indeed, when I first started watching Messi in earnest (a few years after that photo was taken), he was best known for his superb playmaking and passing rather than for simply scoring (as is/was Ronaldo). The scoring came as a result of that strategically humble playmaking skill. Coincidentally, I see evidence of a similar strategic humility in Lamine Yamal, who hasn’t done much scoring for Spain so far this tournament. If he does, Argentina may be in even more trouble. Advantage, Spain.