🔥 La Pulga still has fire! Messi explains his emotional outburst

After the last-minute 3-2 win over Egypt in the World Cup round of 16, emotions overwhelmed him. With tears streaming down his face, Lionel Messi walked across the pitch at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta and embraced each of his teammates. But why did the usually so introverted superstar become so emotional?

“I cried because after missing the penalty, I felt like I was letting my teammates down,” Messi explained afterward in front of the TV cameras. At 0-1, the 39-year-old had already missed his second penalty of this World Cup before turning the match around together with the Albiceleste. From his point of view, anything other than a win was never an option:

“We couldn’t let it end like that. The whole team deserves to keep going. We never give up — never.” 

The guy is 39 years old, has won everything there is to win in football, and still burns for the sport like he did on day one. Incredible, isn’t it?

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.