The war front of football: Messi's conscience

In my last article, I pointed to the latest own goal Messi scored at the White House on March 5th.

On the first day of February, I had started by saying, “we are waiting for the missiles to get closer to the people,” and while saying “I am asking like a child,” I had opposed the war in a childlike way...

Then the children were hit.

On the last day of February, they were hit in the bombardments America directed at Iran... In the safest place representing knowledge, the future, and ethics: an elementary school.

They were hit by America’s ‘Tomahawk’ missiles, which were created by knowledge and technology but could not be stopped by ethics or conscience.

Everyone learned the names of the missiles, but the children hit by the missiles remained as a number: 153-160-175-...

Perhaps they became victims of a war before they could even reach the wars they would learn about in history class. They could not be protected in a girls' elementary school; they died from a missile aimed directly at them.

On that day and after that day, some of the children died in Messi jerseys, and they are still dying... For some of his fans, Messi scored his last goal as an own goal.

As Messi shifts in my mind; for some who think like me, all the goals he will score from now on are meaningless, and his jersey is banned. Some of his fans in Iran, however, are far from the internet, unaware of what is happening, and perhaps still wearing a Messi jersey...

I am writing today for the children who are still alive;

For the loyal fans of today and the playmakers of tomorrow who are still living with Messi jerseys on their backs.

Four weeks have passed since the goal Messi scored as an own goal at the White House; I waited for a statement, an apology, a step back, a white flag from Messi.

He continued to take the field “professionally” and raised his goal tally to 902.

Professionalism and political views can clash, money can clash, even ego can clash. I say everything can clash, but conscience cannot...

When “conscience” stands against something, the other thing should step aside.

Was it not the same Messi who, in the summer of 2013, went on a ‘Peace Tour’ in the Middle East and trained with Palestinian children while wearing a Barcelona jersey?

The one who had Argentina’s friendly match against Israel on June 9, 2018, cancelled by saying, “It is not right while Palestinians are suffering oppression”...

Since the day Lionel Messi, a footballer worthy of applause for his football, applauded Trump’s words regarding the war at the White House on March 5th, while I was waiting for at least a “professional” apology at the limit of my patience; I am writing this in the midst of a small research I am conducting on Messi’s both humanitarian and professional stance, which I address to children, young people, and adults:

Did Messi score his 898th goal as an own goal?

Where is a person’s own goal?

Let’s look at it from a professional perspective:

Where is the own goal of a brand whose name is written on the backs of children in every corner of the world?

Is a footballer’s own goal the team they play for?

But what if that footballer is a name written not only on the jerseys but also in the hearts of children in the Middle East, China, or anywhere in the world... Does the goal change?

I waited, I fixed my eyes on Messi even while sitting in the stands inside a stadium, looking at football from afar, I waited for an apology.

To see if he would make a statement against the reactions of his fans, society, and children...

Because, for me, football is everything outside of ‘football’.

Just as I watched Messi the way I watched the audience instead of the match at Anfield Stadium when Liverpool won the championship in 2020 after a 30-year hiatus; ever since the day he applauded Trump’s words at the White House that ended with “we will kill”...

If you watch a match in the stadium, you might not be able to see the goal with your eyes because of the excited fans, but the voices rising at the same time make you feel it more than seeing it.

No matter how far you are from football, you cannot remain a spectator to the enthusiasm of the fans…

Today, I could not remain a spectator to football either.

The world is upside down: I thought, “What would happen if Messi cried”…

If Messi had cried for peace, would the tears have stopped, or would the crying children have fallen silent?

Wouldn't it have been enough, even just as much as his missed championship goals or his farewells to the teams he played for?

Messi last cried yesterday, on April 1st, in the match where Argentina beat Zambia 5-0. Perhaps the reason for his tears was that it was his last time wearing the jersey for Argentina...

When “Argentina” is mentioned, the legendary footballer Maradona immediately comes to my mind; Maradona, who could declare Bush a “murderer” for the Iraq War...

So how did Messi, in whom I frequently encountered tears during my research and who portrays a “sensitive” image, end up on the side of Trump, who has the world against him, on the side that makes people cry?

As I said, football is beyond ‘football’: The green field can sometimes look like a war base, and a scored goal like a cruise missile.

On one side, innocent fans, on the other, a figure the world opposes.

In my eyes, the situation is more than just an ordinary professional choice in the construction of a star’s existence against the world:

Messi could not stand against the White House invitation; some considered this professionalism. As if it weren't enough that he attended the ceremony, he applauded the bombs falling on Iran and gifted Trump a pink-and-black ball he had signed.

A ball as “pink” as the candies children love and the dreams they build.

And it is decorated with “black” pentagons, just like the nightmares and missiles falling upon them...

What good timing, March 5, 2026, was a starry night like an Oscar rehearsal under the missiles (!)

Such a war... Such a world…

Years ago, I loved you because you cancelled a match against the oppression in Palestine and organized ‘Peace Tours’ in the Middle East, and because you loved a small child. I never cared about the winner or loser of football. Those little children didn't understand the reason, perhaps, but their mothers said, “the jersey on you is dirty,” and took it off and threw it away.

Now, Messi, whose own jersey is tight on his body, tell me, what has changed in your conscience from that day to this?

If it is still football that walks hand in hand with politics and millions, I believe in the conscience in the tears he shed yesterday and pass the ball to Messi today.

I don't know if Trump can draw strength from Messi, but perhaps he could have drawn peace.

Can he still draw it?

As the commentator says, “Encara Messi,” meaning the ball is still with Messi, but this time let it be “por la paz” - for peace.

If Messi played for peace; let winning and losing remain on the field.

Let football take the side of peace with all its might.

If football is not just football;

Let the world play for PEACE now, and AWAY from home at that.

In the World Cup, and in America at that.

I am wishing now for the children who are still alive:

Just as flowers bloomed on the empty green fields during the pandemic, springs ago;

If we could open the warheads of the missiles this spring,

If we could put seeds from the flowers of different geographies instead of explosives.

If we could throw seeds from Tomahawks.

If we could apologize to the children with pink flowers,

Before leaving behind more children to apologize to...

If we could stand against war.

With reference to the poem Nazım Hikmet wrote after Hiroshima;

‘If children were not killed’, they could ‘eat candy’ now...