Lionel Messi is, once again, carrying the hopes of a nation in what will be his last World Cup.
The Argentina star, now playing at his fifth and final tournament, has been unable to capture the trophy during his glittering career. His status in world football has long seen him hailed as his country's leading light, but a final defeat in 2014 is the closest he's come thus far.
Messi and his compatriots were stunned in their World Cup opener, losing 2-1 to Saudi Arabia, which dented their hopes. They responded with a 2-0 win over Mexico as the PSG star netted a stunning opener to put them back in the hunt in Group C. Enzo Fernandez, who plays his club football for Benfica, scored Argentina's second and an old letter written by the 21-year-old has re-emerged. It came back in 2016 when Messi announced his international retirement after another tournament near miss.
Argentina lost out in the Copa America final to Chile on penalties with Messi missing from the spot. He decided to walk away from international football - a decision he would reverse months later - but in the aftermath, Fernandez penned an open letter pleading with his compatriot to stay.
The then-teenager accepted that they were not aware of the pressure facing him but asked that the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner considered his future as he asked for forgiveness.
His letter read: "How are we going to convince you? If we are disastrous. How are we going to convince you? We never had 1 per cent of the pressure that you have on your shoulders. You wake up in the morning, you look in the mirror and you know that a crowd of over 40 million people wants you to do the perfect thing and it has been ridiculously imposed that they can demand it.
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"How are we going to convince you? If we fail to understand that you are a human being, a person with incomparable talent, the best player on the planet, but a person after all."
"How are we going to convince you? If we don't stop for a moment to realize that you are not responsible for the anger that losing causes us, which often has more to do with our own frustrations that are reflected there. Let's look in the mirror and ask ourselves if we demand from ourselves 1 per cent of what we demand from this guy we don't even know.
"Do what you want, Lionel, but please think about staying. Stay and have fun… in a world of ridiculous pressures, they manage to get the most noble thing out of the game, the fun. Seeing you play with the light blue and white is the greatest pride in the world. Play for fun, because when you're having fun, you have no idea how much fun we have. Thank you and forgive us."
