Lionel Messi’s 5 amazing mental strengths

Rahim Bahrain
3 min readJul 15, 2023

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Needless to say, Lionel Messi is universally recognized as the best soccer player in the world today. His stupendous skills in taking the ball past half a dozen opponents with exquisite touches and elusive tricks puts him in a class of his own.

He is a goal scorer, play maker, and an electrifying talent.

courtesy Pixabay

But I think football is as much a mental game as it is physical. The world is well aware of his dribbling skills, speed and athleticism. Not many may know the tremendous mental traits of Messi, that makes him a genius of sort.

Today will learn five splendid cognitive and psychological attributes of Messi, the wizard :

1. Resilience: is the ability to withstand adversity and bounce back from precarious situations. Being resilient does not mean a person doesn’t experience stress or emotional upheaval. Resilience involves the ability to work through pain and suffering. Messi demonstrates remarkable resilience in the face of challenges. He has faced criticism, condemnation, injuries and setbacks throughout his career but has bounced back and maintained a high level of performance.

courtesy unsplash

2. Determination: is the quality that you show when you have decided to do something and you will not let anything stop you, come what may. Messi’s determination is evident in his work ethics and commitment to updating and upgrading his skills. He constantly strives for excellence and pushes himself to reach new heights.

3. Mental toughness: is a personality trait that determines your ability to perform consistently under stress and pressure, and is closely related to qualities such as character, resilience, grit and perseverance. Messi remains calm, cool and composed under pressure. He has the uncanny ability to stay focused and make the right decisions even in high-stakes situations, allowing him to perform at his best when it matters most.

4. Adaptability : is the willingness to change in order to suit different conditions. Adaptability is a quality of paramount importance in Football. Adapting both within a game and between games can often determine who wins and who loses a match. Messi possesses exceptional mental agility, which enables him to quickly analyze situations, anticipate opponents’ movements, and make split-second decisions. His ability to think fast and react effectively gives him a distinct edge on the field.

courtesy pixabay

5. Intellignce : is perhaps more important than any other of his numerous qualities. Messi is unique for his blend of intelligence and perceptiveness as both a creator and scorer of goals. The Football wizard’s decision-making between passing and shooting is especially clear in cases of an onrushing goal keeper. Messi is a master of the jogo bonito, making him one of the best players in the history of the game, not to mention his creativity and his ability to read the game and use his vision to create game-winning plays.

courtesy pixabay

These psychological skills coupled with his exploits and talent in dribbling, playmaking, and goal scoring, are what takes Messi to the next level, a level arguably no other Footballer has reached so far.

Surely one like no one.

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Rahim Bahrain

I try to live consciously. My interests are Psychology, Philosophy, Personality development, Public speaking, etc. I believe in DEPTH in whatever I do in life.