Fernandez on the letter he wrote to Messi: "I had always dreamed of winning a World Cup with him"

Argentina lost their third consecutive final on penalties to Chile in 2016 after losing in Brazil 2014 and the 2015 Copa America. As a result, Lionel Messi decided to leave his national team.

However, the striker returned to the Argentina camp after 45 days after regretting his decision. But the Argentinean people and fans were disappointed with his departure before he returned.

So much so that several players wrote him motivational letters in an attempt to convince him not to abandon international duty. Enzo Fernandez, who won the Best Young Player at the 2022 World Cup award and currently plays for Chelsea, wrote to Messi to ask him to rethink his decision.

The 22-year-old was asked in an interview for 'B/R Football' about his letter and his current relationship with the Inter Miami star. "Yeah, the letter to Leo, I wrote it it my own words, and I was reading a few things that other people had written, how they felt.

"Ever since I wrote that letter, I felt a connection with Leo, and since I've known him we have a great relationship. The letter was very emotional, I wrote it in my own words, just what came to me in the moment," he continued.

"It was a really nice letter, and the fact he could win the World Cup, it's true that I always dreamed of it, but I could never have imagined it would happen, winning a World Cup with him. I always counted the years, to see if football gave me the possibility to play a bit with him, and at the end of the day, God gave me everything.

"It was the only thing that he was missing to crown his career, such a successful career. It makes me very proud to have been part of that team, because we were all like brothers, and we all put everything in to win it for him. And more than that, for all the Argentines, who enjoyed it so much." he added.

Enzo Fernandez's letter to Leo Messi in 2016

"How are we going to convince you if we are disastrous? How are we going to convince you if in our lives we have never had 1% of the pressure that you have on your shoulders? That you get up in the morning and look in the mirror and know that a crowd of more than 40 million people not only want you to do things perfectly, but it's also been ridiculously imposed that they can demand them from you.

How are we going to convince you if we could not understand that you are a human being, a person with unmatched talent, the best player on the planet but a person anyway.

How are we going to convince you if we don't stop for a second to realize that you are not responsible for the anger that losing brings us, which often has more to do with our own frustrations that arise. Let's look in the mirror and ask ourselves, what if we demand of ourselves 1% of what we demand of this boy that we don't even really know?"

 

September 7, 2023