The weirdest butterfly effect in football: How a correct offside decision in 2008 led to Messi winning the 2022 World Cup
- siuuuuu
- Jan 21, 2024
- 6 min read
Updated: Mar 2, 2024
It's a long story. Messi winning the World Cup crowned his status as one of the greatest football players of all time. There were many factors contributing to this. You might have seen a butterfly effect from Bernd Leno getting injured by Neal Maupay. However, this one is far weirder and crazier. It involved Barcelona's terrible big-money transfers, an inspirational story of a paralyzed Romanian left back, and stretched all the way to an Eredivisie game in 2008. It is definitely not certain that some events caused others. However, you can't say it didn't right? Here is the ultimate, wacky butterfly effect that led to Messi's greatest career achievement.
December 18, 2022: Messi wins the World Cup
Messi lifts his ultimate career possession. Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera
This is something that every football fan knows. Messi won the World Cup after an absolutely sensational final. The ultimate reason that Messi won the World Cup was because of a penalty shootout. And that leads to the next event:
December 18, 2022: Montiel penalty wins Argentina World Cup
Gonzalo Montiel, the Nottingham Forest right back, slotted the ball into the left bottom corner to win the World Cup for Argentina. (I unfortunately missed watching this penalty because my TV disconnected at the worst possible time ha.) Of course, this wouldn't have happened if the last penalty of France wasn't given. However, there's a deeper factor to this...
August 13, 2021: Montiel signs for Sevilla
Gonzalo Montiel's signing for Sevilla led to his call-up to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Montiel signed for Sevilla because of his impressive performances at River Plate. He was signed to fill a vacancy on the right back spot: Aleix Vidal. He was the right back that Sevilla needed at the time, participating in attack and closing down oppositions in defense, a playstyle similar to Aleix and Jesus Navas, the club's right backs. However, the signing might not entirely be due to Aleix's exit...
October 4, 2020: Jesus Navas assists Coutinho vs Barcelona
Jesus Navas is a Sevilla legend, being the club's all-time highest appearance maker at 654 at the time of writing. However, he had shown signs of slowing down, so Sevilla needed to buy a new, younger right back in Montiel. One of those examples was when his error led to Coutinho's goal in a match between Barcelona and Sevilla, which ended 1-1. He miscontrolled the ball, which gave Coutinho a wide open goal to slot in. Ironically, Messi himself played the pass that led to the error, so I could have just ended here. However, the pass wouldn't have happened if...
August 25, 2020: Messi threatens to leave Barca
2020 was an absolutely disastrous year for Barcelona, with them failing to win the La Liga and Champions League. Even worse, their captain, leader, legend, god, Lionel Messi, had threatened to quit the club via a 700m buy-out clause. It was mainly because the club couldn't fulfill his demands and his dissatisfaction with new manager Koeman, who allegedly said that Messi would lose his privileges at the club. However, that year, Barca suffered a catastrophic defeat in the Champions League...
August 14, 2020: Barca 2-8 Bayern
Messi simply couldn't believe what happened that match. Source: Goal.com
This was simply one of the most shocking results in football history. Barcelona, a club with such rich history and glory, got defeated EIGHT to two. That match was absolutely flabbergasting, and Barca's terrible defending and morale ultimately caused this to happen. However, two of the eight was added by Philippe Coutinho, on loan at Bayern from Barca, which was caused by...
January 6, 2018: Barcelona signs Philippe Coutinho for 142m
Barcelona had forked out big cash to sign flops like Griezmann and Dembele (who is not that much of a flop), but they spend the most on Coutinho, a little Brazilian magician who can bend out screamers and dance through defenders. He scored some brilliant goals for Barca, but his performances were not as stellar as his performances at Liverpool. And this goal was the moment when Liverpool found out that they had unleashed a gem...
February 17, 2013: Coutinho scores first goal for Liverpool
In his second game, before anybody asks. After receiving a pass from Luis Suarez, Coutinho dribbled past a defender before unleashing a shot at goal. It was not the best of goals, the ball going through the middle of the net. Nevertheless, his movement and skill were evidently present. But the finish wasn't fine. In fact, nearly all goalkeepers would have saved his shot. Unfortunately, the Swansea keeper, Michel Vorm, got the last touch, and the ball cannoned off his foot to go in the net. It was bad positioning from Vorm, and without that goal, Coutinho might just become another 007 or a flop, like Antony, Mudryk (so far), and a certain "la ka ka". However, this save ensured that Vorm was in goal for Swansea at all...
September 25, 2008: Michel Vorm saves a penalty from Huntelaar
Michel Vorm saves a Klaas-Jan Huntelaar missile Source: Michel Vorm - Penaltykiller
Michel Vorm was a young, impressive goalkeeper for FC Utrecht before his Premier League days. He had a knack for saving penalties back in the day. However, this save against Klaas-Jan Huntelaar must be his best. Vorm stopped a missile heading to his right and got to the rebound first as well. Kudos to him. However, if the penalty isn't conceded there will never be a save...
Minutes before the previous event: Mihai Nesu gets sent off for Utrecht
Mihai Nesu watches Utrecht play from his wheelchair. Nesu was paralyzed in the neck in a training accident in 2011. Source: Sportskeeda
Ok, so there is no description I could find about how the Utrecht left back Mihai Nesu conceded a penalty and got sent off, but what I can describe is his inspirational and unfortunate story (that isn't in the butterfly effect). Nesu collided with a teammate in training on 10 May 2011, and it led to him being paralyzed in the neck and having to live in a wheelchair ever since. It's tragic to go from playing as an Eredivisie left back to ending a career early and not being able to move. Even with paralysis hampering him, he is still positive and built a rehabilitation center aimed to help children with similar disabilities to Nesu. You can learn more about Mihai Nesu Foundation here: https://www.mihainesufoundation.com/en/who-we-are/mihai-nesu-foundation.html
Nevertheless, before his accident, Nesu got signed by Utrecht because another right back, Erik Pieters, left the club the season prior. Pieters' solid performances led to him signing for Dutch giants PSV, but in one of his last matches for Utrecht, he did this...
April 20, 2008: Erik Pieters scores a sublime volley vs Groningen
Erik Pieters lashes one into the corner of the goal. Source: Erik Pieters in Utrecht vs Groningen on 20/24/2008
Erik Pieters was a young right back talent, similar to Lutsharel Geertruida. He went on to become a Premier League right back with Stoke and is now at West Brom. Back in his Utrecht days, Pieters scored this sensational goal against Groningen. After receiving a through pass, Pieters hammered th
e ball right into the top left, leaving the goalkeeper motionless. It was a goal that perhaps motivated PSV to sign him, along with his solid defensive abilities. However, it was a close offside situation, and if it had been offside...
The Butterfly- a correct offside decision
The linesman didn't do anything about it. So there we have it, a stationary linesman led to Messi winning the World Cup. It must be weird, of course. It might not even make any sense. But who says it couldn't have gone like this? If the linesman raised his flag at that moment, PSV wouldn't have noticed Erik Pieters' goalscoring instincts, Utrecht wouldn't have needed a replacement in Mihai Nesu, Nesu wouldn't have been there to concede the penalty for Vorm to save, Vorm wouldn't be in net for Swansea for Coutinho to score his first goal for Liverpool, Coutinho would become a 007 and wouldn't sign for Barca, Barca wouldn't have Coutinho sent on loan to worsen their scoreline vs Bayern, Messi wouldn't have left Barca to make that pass which led to Jesus Navas' error, Sevilla would rely on Navas as their right back and not sign Montiel, Montiel wouldn't be called up to Argentina, he wouldn't be there to score the decisive penalty that won Messi the World Cup.
But this article isn't designed to make sense, muahahahahaha. Switch Montiel for Enzo Fernandez or any other Argentina player as the fourth taker, and it could still result in a conversion.
But then again, Enzo missed his penalty against Netherlands in Argentina's quarter final penalty shootout.
Welcome to the weird, controversial, mysterious topic of butterfly effects.
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0PNjHm0s4Q Erik Pieters in Utrecht Vs Groningen on 20/04/2008
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ln2PbDMmbA Michel Vorm - Penaltykiller
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