Messi: Essay on the best goal of the best

The birth of my son Thiago is the most beautiful thing this life has given me.

Leo Messi

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Refik Anadol (40) has decided to dedicate a work of art to a work of art (to the best goal of the best footballer in the world according to the election of the best footballer in the world; that is, to the best goal of Leo Messi) and the chronicler has invested some time in interpreting the career of the Turkish artist, that is, of Refik Anadol.

Refik Anadol harnesses Artificial Intelligence to design art. He plays with technology, light, and impossible plastic effects. Among forests or on building facades—Casa Batlló, for example—he constructs lights and scenes that deform, dissolve, and reanimate, seemingly coming to life and embracing (or capturing) the observer.

Looking at Anadol's art, the observer's spirit is overwhelmed, frightened or overexcited, which is more or less what that mythomaniac who has spent years and years contemplating the feats of Leo Messi (37) feels.

Messi is no longer the superhero he once was, although his legacy is extensive, as prolific as the art of Pablo Picasso or the literature of Alexandre Dumas: he has left behind 800 goals in official statistics. That's a lot, and it's both a gift and a mess, especially when you have to boil them down to just one.

Refik Anadol asked Messi to stop for a moment, reflect, and review his sporting career.

–Choose your best goal.

And Messi, who is today the star of this Inter Miami team that is a sort of elephant graveyard, obeyed.

(And while the legend reflected and debated about that moment, the chronicler wondered: which was he going to choose? The one he signed against Getafe , the one that emulated Maradona's gallop, the cosmic kite , against England? Or the one that destroyed Athletic in the Copa del Rey ? Perhaps an impossible free kick, from 28 meters, against Liverpool?).

I chose it because of the moment in which it happened and because it crowned an unforgettable year.” Leo Messi Footballer

We learned their verdict this Thursday.

According to the world's best footballer, his best goal came on May 27, 2009, in Rome: he scored it in the Champions League final against Manchester United.

There you have it.

We see Xavi deliver a pinpoint cross and Messi, a small boy among giants, suspended in mid-air. The shot is an unorthodox acrobatic move. He leans his body back and the ball flies past Van der Sar and, perhaps subdued, seals the Barça victory (2-0, the third title in the club's history).

(In the newspaper archive, we see Messi picking up the boot that had come off his foot and with which he was frolicking around Rome's Olympic Stadium, greeting the crowd.)

"I had many goals that are perhaps even more beautiful and of enormous value, also due to their importance, but that header was always my favorite," the football legend explained. "And if I chose this one, it's because of the moment it happened, what it meant, and because it crowned an unforgettable year."

(In 2008-2009, Guardiola's Barça achieved the Champions League-League-Cup treble.)

Solidarity causes Refik Anadol, an artist, will turn the goal into a work of art, and Inter Miami will donate the proceeds to charitable causes.

His decision is more about results than aesthetics, and perhaps makes life easier for Refik Anadol, the artist who will now apply AI to design a work.

In the near future, Anadol will deliver his creation, a project inspired by the Argentine's work, to be auctioned off. The proceeds will be donated to the Inter Miami Foundation and invested in charitable causes.

(Some of his pieces, such as Machine Hallucinations , have sold for $2.3 million, two million euros.)