Lionel Messi’s legacy is hard to match: Sourav Ganguly on the Argentine star’s retirement

India will play the match at the stadium on October 3. What do you think about the upcoming match?

Gangulas: I saw news about it recently. Football is a fantastic sport. I really enjoy watching it and Brazil is one of the best soccer countries in the world. So I hope they will come with a very strong team and it will give good exposure to Indian footballers.

That’s what you need when you play against players who are better than you – you improve yourself and become better. So this is very good for Indian football. And it’s not just Brazil. Uruguay is coming, Panama is coming, so several teams are coming to Bengal to play football.

Hopefully this will continue consistently as it will give our players a lot of exposure.

Brazil captain Cafu has visited Kolkata earlier. Will he come with the team next month?

Gangulas: Cafu was already in Calcutta. He will come here with the team next month. It will be good to have someone like him in the team. If Brazil brings a good team, it will mean good football.

Nepal was recently hit by devastating floods. What would you like to say to the people affected?

Gangulas: I wish good luck to the families and people of Nepal. I hope he recovers soon. Natural disasters are not simple. They are extremely heavy, take many lives and disrupt the whole system of a nation.

My prayers are with all those affected and I hope they can recover very soon.

Lionel Messi has retired from international football. What do you think of his legacy?

Gangulas: That’s what sports are about. The best players eventually have to retire and Lionel Messi was absolutely brilliant for a very long time. But retirement is inevitable in sports.

The best players eventually have to leave and Messi has left behind a legacy that will be very hard to match. I saw Diego Maradona play – another left-back from Argentina – and Messi carried that tradition forward.

This kind of heritage is very hard to maintain, but Argentina is such a great sporting and footballing nation. Brazil, England, Germany, Spain — these are the countries that consistently produce world-class players.

Hopefully another great player will emerge soon.

After the change of government, several new opportunities appeared in sports. Do you think these opportunities will continue?

Gangulas: They should. Sport is one of the biggest influencers of people. When you bring young boys and girls into sport, be it football, cricket or any other discipline, you give them life and opportunity.

That is why these opportunities are very important and I hope they will continue.

Finally, do you miss hosting Dadagiri?

Ganguly: I host Bigg Boss but Dadagiri has been running for 10 years. So yeah, you’re kind of missing it.