Football legend Johan Cruyff has given Lionel Messi’s penalty against Celta Vigo his seal of approval.
That’s as good of an excuse as any to watch that piece of magic one more time.
Football legend Cruyff praised Messi for having the requisite cojnes to pull off the unorthodox penalty against Celta Vigo. The three-time Ballon d’Or winner revealed his admiration for the spot-kick to Spanish outlet Sport.
“Football is to have fun and Messi is making it fun for all of us.”
Cruyff, of course, scored a similar penalty for Ajax back in 1982. He explained that the his technique completely bamboozled the referee and he had to reassure his that it was valid.
“The referee, after the penalty, asked me ‘What have you done? Is that valid?’ and I said yes, the ball always moved forward, it wasn’t offside. He gave it.”
While Cruyff’s penalty received nothing but praise, Messi’s has received some backlash. Some argued that it disrespected their opponents, especially because Barcelona ended up winning the game 6-1. However, Cruyff believes that the beautiful game is all about fun, which is why he doesn’t understand why anyone would complain about Messi’s penalty.
“The press of the time praised the play. They saw it as genius. And it’s been like that since, so I don’t understand the controversy we saw. Football’s to have fun, not to get into wars or provocations.”
Take that killjoys.
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