The Last Cup: Part 1
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NPR
4.7 • 12.1K Ratings
🗓️ 10 November 2022
⏱️ 9 minutes
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Summary
As Lionel Messi rose up the ranks of the storied Barça football club in Spain, he dreamed of winning a World Cup for his home country. But playing with Argentina's national team has proven to be this soccer superman's kryptonite. For most of his career, Messi has wrestled with the disappointment of the home crowd after each devastating World Cup loss. Over time, his connection to his own country has been questioned after spending time abroad.
What can Messi's story tell us about the cost of leaving home, and the struggle to return?
The Last Cup is a dual language limited series. All episodes will be released in English and Spanish. Listen to the Spanish versions here.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, I'm Kelly McEvers and this is embedded. |
| 0:04.8 | So I said this at the end of our last series about policing. |
| 0:09.7 | If you haven't heard that series yet, by the way, go listen. |
| 0:13.4 | We are going to be doing a lot more stories in this feed. |
| 0:16.7 | More documentaries, more investigations, more personal stories, stories that, you know, |
| 0:22.7 | as we like to do here, help us understand what's happening in the news. |
| 0:27.4 | Like this story you're about to hear. |
| 0:29.6 | Just by one of my favorite reporters, Jasmine Garz, she's been on the show before. |
| 0:35.1 | And this story is all about what it means to have to leave home, in her case, Argentina. |
| 0:42.4 | And what it's like to wonder if you can go back. |
| 0:46.3 | Jasmine tells this story by way of a guy she calls the Superman of soccer, who soon is |
| 0:52.7 | going to be very much in the news. |
| 0:55.1 | Okay, here's Jasmine. |
| 0:58.2 | I'm going to tell you the story of one of the best soccer players that has ever lived. |
| 1:04.1 | The Superman of soccer. |
| 1:06.1 | You're watching possibly the greatest football ever at the absolute peak of his palace. |
| 1:17.8 | I don't think we've ever seen or ever would see anything like this. |
| 1:28.2 | Maybe you've watched La Pulga Tomeca play on his former team in Barcelona. |
| 1:35.8 | It's like he's from another planet. |
| 1:37.5 | The way that he can just keep that ball stuck to his foot and then do what he does, I |
| 1:42.3 | don't know, I feel like there's nothing this player couldn't do. |
| 1:46.0 | You see Lionel Messi on a team and you expect that team to win every single time. |
... |
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