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TWO DAYS AFTER Lionel Messi's 29th birthday, his carefully constructed life seemed set to unravel. A botched penalty kick in yet one more failed final -- this time, June's Copa America Centenario -- had led the world's greatest player to tearfully, angrily retire from Argentina's national team.
In hindsight, the timing should not have come as a surprise. "For one reason or another," says Mario Kempes, Argentina's World Cup hero of 1978, "at that age a footballer begins to decline.