Messi's style of play shows his country's defining style

His distinctive Barca upbringing forces the notion that Messi is 'not Argentine enough'. But the star's skills would do the Argentine tradition proud.
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It is perhaps futile to attempt to establish Argentinian traits in Lionel Messi's game. Frame by frame, an analysis of his style of play suggests certain characteristics typical of some of the country's defining style.
Following the recent Copa America competition in which Argentina failed to impress, it has become more relevant than ever to find an answer as to why Messi fails to reach his superlative FC Barcelona standards when playing for his National squad.
An enduring image: The Champions League final against Manchester United earlier this year. There is an eternal instant when three monsters tumble on top of Messi, and the bodies become tangled as they fall over the tiny Argentinian.
Messi emerges, man-ball-like, an insect, a larva or reptile, as if engendered from within the very guts of Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick.
He rises from the ground in one piece, in a single perpetual motion, like a worm turning into a butterfly: the cartoon-like boy has a bloodcurling roar - his arms stretch out as he leaves the three huge men defeated, looking on with a mixture of impotence and disbelief as Messi breaks free from their weight and their tackle, his feet in perennial contact with the ball. A single curve, a single movement.
In a very romantic sense, that is the style of football respected by the men of the legendary River Plate club back home. A small man, with a low centre of gravity skillfully navigating through opponents twice his size.
The comparisons with Diego Maradona continue. However, unlike Maradona, Messi still carries the burden of having something to prove, in terms of his 'Argentine-ness'.
Beyond direct comparisons between both players, it is clear that Messi is fast becoming the main referent for football lovers. Certainly, since Maradona, no one has dominated the collective fantasy as much as Messi currently does.
He definitely seems to have the necessary Argentine pre-requisite which is to "love the ball" - to want it, seek it for one self, covet and cherish it. What he doesn't have is the patriotic outbursts common to many of his national teammates.
For a nation which has built its sense of national identity so firmly on footballing tradition, the pride and joy derived from yet another 'world greatest' being an Argentine appears non-negligible.
But whereas it is indisputable that Messi is not a national emblematic figure of the iconic status of Maradona, Che Guevara, Eva Peron, or even tango legend Carlos Gardel, it is quite clearly the case that when he excels for Barcelona, the country still claims him as one of its own.
His control of the ball and his apparent ability to do with it whatever he pleases, are typical assets of an Argentina player. The cartoonist and fanatic football follower Fontanarrosa, also from Rosario - Messi's hometown - had a story about a boy who sits on a bench with the ball placed beside him.
A man observes from a nearby cafe window, and when the boy gets up and walks away leaving the ball on the seat, the man comments that he has never seen a Rosario boy leave the ball behind before.
Just as he is about to run after the boy to point out this abhorrent oversight, the boy turns a corner, and casually looks back at the bench and whistles. The ball then bounces off and turns the corner, obediently and loyally following its calling. Messi looks like he could do that.
He is like an evolutionary advanced type. He thrives in co-operative rather than a competitive environment. Argentina has a very markedly individualistic culture: each man for his own.
Maradona embodies this better than anyone. Through conflict and competition he found his fuel. Messi is the opposite. In a harmonious system where the group objective overrides the individual, he functions perfectly.
The Argentina squad is far from that at the moment.