Can Messi And Co. Deliver For Their Country When It Matters?

Former Leeds United Striker Healy serves as a rare exception since he has become quite the unique phenomenon with Northern Ireland yet continues to underachieve on the club level. He even broke the record for goals scored in a qualifying campaign for a European Championship after scoring 13 goals in 11 appearances for his national team.

Disregarding the curious case of Northern Ireland’s David Healy, the trend sees some players struggle to sustain their lofty club performances when wearing national colours. Both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have achieved superstar status with Barcelona and Manchester United respectively.

The Argentine Messi has often delivered for the Catalan club and last season was one of the main catalysts behind Barca’s domination. The Catalans capped an unbelievable season by achieving the famous treble of La Liga, domestic cup and European Champions League trophies. The electrifying and extremely talented player dubbed by some as Maradona’s successor has already stamped his authority in the Camp Nou while he continues to have little impact on Argentina’s dismal campaign in the South American qualifiers for World Cup 2010.

While Messi was able to deliver for Argentina’s U-20s in big tournaments at least, the Portuguese Ronaldo has failed to light up the international stage. The current Real Madrid player had a phenomenal stint with the Red Devils including a stunning 2007-08 campaign during which he notched 42 goals in all competitions. This is all the more remarkable considering that the Portuguese player was fielded as an attacking midfielder/winger by manager Alex Ferguson.

Cristiano’s summer transfer to Los Galacticos ensured that he became the most expensive footballer in history having cost the Madrid outfit close to $132 million. The new Los Blancos star has failed to impress with Real so far yet it is too early to judge whether he will be a success in Spain. When representing Portugal and despite playing with established players such as Luis Figo (now retired), Chelsea’s Deco, Jose Bosingwa and Ricardo Carvalho, and Atletico Madrid’s Simao Sabrosa among others, the world’s most expensive player continues to deliver pedestrian performances.

Currently, Portugal has almost no chance of winning its qualifying group for World Cup 2010. Even worse, the team is in danger of missing out on the second spot in its qualifying group which can provide Ronaldo and his teammates with an opportunity to make it to South Africa via play-offs. As captain, Cristiano has failed to lead by example during the qualifiers and has not registered a single goal in the group stage as of yet. His last international goal came in a friendly against Finland back in February 2009.

Though the prodigy Messi has failed to shine for the Albicelestes, he still managed to score four goals in the qualifying stages so far. Undoubtedly, Messi is surrounded by quality players on the national team yet the problem appears to be Diego Maradona’s lack of coaching experience, his limited tactical knowledge and perhaps even his inability to motivate the players. At the tender age of 19, Lionel was not given the proper chance to shine during World Cup 2006 so if Argentina does qualify to South Africa and Maradona gets his formation right then it will be hard to bet against Messi finally excelling for his country.

Ironically, Ronaldo and Messi will face each other in La Liga this season so it will be quite interesting if they can transform their club rivalry into the highest stage- the World Cup. For now, both will be hoping they can circumvent this extremely difficult qualifying stage and carry their respective nations to South Africa where they can display their silky skills.

Both may still be underachieving with their national teams, yet they have plenty of time to prove themselves. The onus is on them to reveal their true colours sooner rather than later and the challenge for them begins with making it to next year’s World Cup. Otherwise, the top-notch competition will be missing two of the world’s biggest superstars.

Two nations are holding their breath and imploring their coveted stars to punch their tickets to South Africa. Next month will be crucial in determining whether Argentina and Portugal will carry on competing for next year’s big event or if agony will continue to strike their superstars when playing for country.