REVEALED: The reason for Lionel Messi's incredible Bernabeu celebration
The player was responding to everything which had happened in the game
It was not a planned celebration and had nothing to do with any other matters
There was something unreal, something supernatural about the way Lionel Messi celebrated his second goal at the Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday night. It is not usual to see him alone, in front of a stand full of fans of Real Madrid, holding up his shirt to reveal the No.10 and his name. These type of celebrations are not normal -- and even less so from a player like Messi, who sometimes doesn't even smile or celebrate at all.
However, in the Bernabeu that was not the case -- nor was it the case at the Camp Nou against PSG. Both of those almosy mystical moments have many things. What is going through his mind? Does he want to send a message? What?
THE incidents
It's not easy to interpret Leo Messi, a player that moves on the pitch with the most basic imulses: for the love of football and the love of winning. And there, in the origin of how he moves, is where you have to look to find the reason for Sunday's celebration. Messi was angry with how things had gone on the pitch. Casemiro's yellow card, Marcelo's elbow, which brought blood from his mouth, Casemiro's consistent fouling, Sergio Ramos' red card, James Rodriguez's late equaliser... A series of events that had fired up Messi.
The goal in the 92nd minute, then, produced an explosion of the anger which had been build up and the best possible revenge for it: an added time winner against Barça's eternal rival, taking the Blaugrana to the top of the table. And that was why, without having thought about it, after the celebration with his team-mates he held his shirt aloft in front of the Bernabeu stands to demonstrate what he had been capable of doing.
THE 'no' motivEs
There were some who felt it was a demonstration that his contract renewal is close to completion, that the kiss on the badge was the prelude to signing an extension (it could yet be), that it was because he'd reached 500 Barça goals. It was none of that. It was just the sensation of coming through so many obstacles and beating Madrid in the best way possible. That was why he showed his shirt to the Madrid fans: an unmistakable sign that someone special had just passed through the Bernabeu.
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