Gonzalo Higuaín plays likely last game of his career, in tears after Inter Miami loss

By
Roy Nemer
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47

Gonzalo Higuaín likely played the last game of his career as he was in tears following Inter Miami’s game on Monday.

Higuaín announced a few weeks ago that this season would be the last in his football career. And following Inter Miami’s 3-0 loss vs. New York City on Monday, that game may have been his last.

An emotional Higuaín spoke to the media following the game at a press conference. Thanks to Inter Miami FC for the quotes, here is what he had to say:

“[After the game] I felt that the thing that I loved the most as a job during half of my life came to an end. It was 17 and a half years of my career, many images come to mind of everything you lived, everything that you fought for, how much I world, and I leave very proud knowing that I gave everything up until today. That’s the most important thing in life in anything that you do, leaving it all. When you know that you give everything, you can leave with a clean conscience, and I feel that way. Now I’m going to enjoy what is coming next with my partner, my daughter, my family, my friends, and I’m looking forward to that and being proud of what I was able to achieve.

“I’m leaving very proud of everything that we have achieved and of my teammates, the coaches, our fans. I wish them the best for next year… From the bottom of my heart I want to wish them the best because I’ve met some wonderful people at the club. My time here was some of the years of my career that I enjoyed the most and it gave me back the love for the ball that I had lost… I was very happy at this club and am very grateful to everyone at Inter Miami.”

Even before Higuaín joined Inter Miami, he had become a polarising figure for Argentina fans. Part of the fantastic four for Argentina between 2011-2014, he took part in a World Cup final and two Copa America finals.

It was those three finals which Argentina fans cannot seem to forgive and forget him for as many still blame him for missing opportunities in those three games.

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47 Comments

  1. Happy Retirement Gonzalo. He could have played for France like David Trezeguet but he chose Albiceleste. That is why he deserves respect. Gonzalo could have won world cup but I remember him for scoring an unique goal against Belgium to win a quarter final after 90 WC. Wish he got the chance in 2018 wc against France, I think he would have scored.

    Stay Happy one of the best striker of his time.

  2. both dybala and foyth seems to be in very good mood, so they are pretty much sure recovery prior to world cup

  3. Higuain started his career on a high both at River and Real. During his time at Real, he started losing his hair, which started to have a psychological effect on him apparently. He was conscious of his hair and hence had concentration issues on the field. He never finished his career the way he started. Hair loss can have a huge negativr psychological impact in any men.

  4. To me, Higuain is more pitiful than to be blamed. When the team loses in the final, you always find an excuse to blame someone. But if you are luckier and win, you will be called a saint. That’s the injustice in football. Indeed, Maradona scored with his hand, if the referee found out what would happen? That was the turning point of the game. It is also intended for Arg. crowned champion. Messi is now facing a great opportunity to bring home the championship trophy, he absolutely deserves the title of world champion more than any other player, but anything is possible. If unlucky, we have to live with that too and congratulate our opponents.

  5. Guys, go easy on the man. He tried his best, picked Argentina instead of France and also one of the most skillful strikers ever. Unfortunately, poor guy could only lose it in the finals and he mentally took a hit. He’s a genuinely normal guy with no Ill-intent. He probably is more hurt than anyone else for fluffing the lines and it’s also not on him for the ref not giving a penalty against Neuer. Too much of a coward to not call it bc it’s a final.

    Let’s hope the current group will bring the smile back on his face and let him enjoy his life! I wish you all the best and more luck El Pipita!

  6. I remember El Pipita and that smile of his, unlike Messi and Kun, he was simply unshackled and always performed well for our beloved Albiceleste until that fateful Sunday in 2014 when he had the fate of the entire ARGENTINA faithful in his hands and DROPPED it……..he was NEVER the same after that……jaded is word to best describe him

    Just saw it on ESPN, Messi picks France and Banana Yellow as WC favorites……TEXT BOOK answer….proper deflect (Y)

  8. I always wanted Simeone as our national team coach but he is more negative than Mourinho One trick pony, just defend the lead wait for the counters nothing more

    he’s making DePaul and Molina look so ordinary it irritates me so much i can’t stand Simeone anymore

  11. In behavioral psychology there is an approach to healing from trauma by limited exposure to memories of that trauma. Same with posts about Higuain. But I think having lifted Copa and especially winning the WC will heal us all completely.

  13. i am kind of happy that he retires because i will no longer see him in news time to time to remind me how loser he was and the bad reputation our beloved team take because of him in big part. that guy cost us 1 world cup and 2 Copa america and that loser are responsible BIG for the huge negative view all the world had for the Argentina national team in his era. the history could be completely different with just win 1 of the 3. Sorry but i want to forget him and with his retire that will be little more easy.
    i don t give a damn for Real madrid. i don t care how “big” player he was. i am not fan of Madrid. i am fan of Argentina and for us he was a nightmare to forget.

    • Yes. We had gone through tough phases from there on. Little by little diminished and atlast put on a disaster show in 2018 wc and also the end of that golden era. An era with great forwards solid defense and a supportive mid. But destiny was so harsh on Higuain. He scored one but it was off side and Neuer fouled on him but referee didn’t give penalty. That day our all forwards turned ordinary. Even in copa finals Messi suddenly looked out of touch. Coz in both copa semis Messi was in a beast mode. Then why in finals they couldn’t give that finishing touch. It’s still a myth for me.

    • Cox4 my friend, you know how much i respect you and how much i enjoy reading your posts, but allow me to disagree here. Yes, Higuain blew it big time and i would like to speak mainly for 2014 wc final. It was an unbelievable waste but i think that it is not fair to put the whole blame on him. Remember Palacio? He wasted two great chances to score inside Germans’ box where he tried to get the ball over Neuer by a lobe in the first one and to put the ball in the back of the net by a weak header in the second one, while in both occassions he should just kick the ball back to the net. I am not talking about Messi, who also missed an one to one with Neuer, but in a difficult angle, it wasn’t difficult for Messi’s standards though.

      Moreover, Higuain was trying hard, remember the goal he scored that was ruled out due to offside? Remember the passion he had celebrating that goal, with the rest of us the fans, until we all eventually realised it was an offside? I really feel bad for him and nobody would like to be in his position, let alone carrying this burden for the rest of his career. I just feel that it is not right my friend, sometimes it seems that the ball doesn’t want to go in, sometimes it seems that it isn’t meant to be. Higuain should have been awarded a penalty by Neuer though, do you think that if we were Brazil or Germany the penalty would have been given or not?

      If you ask me, we shouldn’t put the blame to anyone, it wasn’t meant to be.
      I hope this time is our time.

        • Sula, your post above is so wrong and offensive in so many levels..you don’t understand anxiety..so please don’t speak like it is a weakness… it is like saying children are stupid because they don’t know how to balance the checkbook…

      • my friend as i said he has BIG PART of the responsibility. not all sure.
        just allow me to say to you that don t stay only to world cup final.
        this is just the top of ice mountain.
        do you remember 2015 final what he miss? do you remember in 2016 final what he miss? was Palacio there? was anybody else there? NO.
        it was again him. you stay only to world cup BUT my friend it is not only the world cup.
        just ONE of the fucking THREE to had given us the HISTORY WILL BE DIFFERENT and the fucking LABEL of LOSERS that the rest of world put to that generation of Argentina national team would NOT EXIST.
        BUT……..
        i can forgive him even for world cup if he had just give us ONE of the fucking THREE CUPS we lost. No my friend. you have big heart. i am not like you. i don t forgive him. sorry.

        before i end my writting i want to add 1 more less important. the people forget it. I DON T.
        Do you remember 2018 game against Nigeria? yes the game Rojo score and save our ass from a group phase exit? Do you remember before Rojo s goal what the loser missed? PLEASE watch it if you forget.
        when we needed oxygen AGAIN he was not there.
        so what to forgive and what to forget first?
        NO !!! and before somebody say about Belgium goal i can easy say that he score in 17 minute. the team wasn t in stress. if he didn t score then we could score later. i don t give him very big credit. say that i am hard ok.
        in the same game in second half when the Belgium was pushing us to tie the game do you remember what he missed? he make a good run and in end he send the ball in….upper post !!!
        yeah thanks for nothing.

    • You guys make a mountain out of mole hill. 1-2 misses are normal. Everyone miss chances. The prblm was not higuain prblm was the mentality of the whole team. Strikers miss sometimes but when whole team miss chances that’s the prblm. I’ll blame messi more than higuain. When ur the talisman and the main star u can’t miss a chance like that. If Argentina won that cup nobody gave a damn to higuain everyone would have hailed messi so when some bad happens messi also needs to be criticized. Im the biggest messi fan here but its a fact i saw him playing 2007,2015,2016 & 2021 copa final and 2014 wc final and he didn’t score a single goal in those finals thats 5 games without any goals or assist that’s poor. Plus he played 8 knock out games in wc till now and didn’t score a single goal that’s super bad from him. He needs to change this stats in this wc otherwise we will be in trouble. We can’t always depend on other players to score. Maradona, pele, zidane, ronaldo, romario everyone scored in important matches now its time messi have to score in knockouts and win us the trophy

  14. The things I like both pochettino and sampoali they play attacking football plus they give Argentine players whichever club they manage all suddenly gonzalo montiel becomes bench warmer to regular starter under sampoali

  15. Higuain was a true fighter on the pitch, lot of professionalism, energy and made lot of efforts despite his limits,. That’s why many coaches like Capello, Sarri and Mourinho appreciated him. He shows that it’s totally possible to have a great career without any oustanding talent.

  16. Higuain was a very talented striker. He could have won balondor like Benzema but he lacked mental strength, determination, handling of pressure and hard work that made him a laughing stock in world football

    • Nowhere good enough to win Balon D’Or. Even among Argentine players in the same generation he was max 6th best after: Messi, Di Maria, Tevez, Aguero, and Mascherano.

    • Higuain was just as talented as Benzema if not better but his mental strength was the reason he declined so rapidly. He just couldn’t handle pressure in crunch situations. Not taking anything away from talented Benzema who had to feed Ronaldo all the balls for so many years but the reason Benzema won the Ballon-Dor is due to pure luck of Madrid’s run in the champions league. How many times Madrid came back from brink of defeat against better teams who outplayed them only for some supernatural kind of events leading up to Madrid’s goals! It was absolutely unnatural .

      • I don’t think so. Higuain was a great finisher (except when under pressure) and had good off the ball movement but lacked the all-around skills of Benzema. He was a poor dribbler, passer, not good in the air, and not a good hold-up player (even Aguero and Tevez who were much shorter were better at this).

        I would take Aguero or Tevez any day over Higuain as my starting forward.

        Another factor was that Higuain’s fitness wasn’t the best.

  17. A quote from Mourinho in 2011

    “If you don’t have a dog to go out hunting with you, and you have a cat, you have to go out with a cat. You can’t go out alone.”

    The dog is Higuain and the cat is Benzema. The Argentine was injured at the time, so the only option for Mourinho was using the French benchwarmer. Benzema hates Mou due to this quote. 11 years later, I think it’s the other way round (Higuain is the cat now).

  18. Higuaín and Benzema both are at similar age and played for Real Madrid during the same period of time, although Higuaín’s tenure at Madrid was cut shorter than expected.

    Today, they both are crying. One for playing his last game in MLS after losing the match and the other winning for the Ballon d’Or with RM, two days after winning the el-Classico.

    • Higuain is a great player. If he had scored in that final he could be considered as a legend and more than Benzema even atleast for Argentine fans. From that Fab four Higuain and Aguero doesn’t achieved than what we expected from them. Aguero is still a legend for city fans. Injuries made di Maria away from that legendary status. There is something remaining to be completed for him. Hoping it will be the wc .But still he would be remembered for that copa goal. Yeah both di Maria and Messi needs our hardworking midfielders,stubborn defense and courageous emi to achieve the glory.

      • I don’t understand the logic people frequently use here. Scoring a goal in the world cup final wouldn’t have made Higuaín’s career legendary. A lot of people have scored goals in the world Cup final to acclaim victory- they didn’t become legendary just because they scored that goal.

        However, the use of ” what if” logic in itself is childish.

        Higuaín was a good striker. I enjoyed watching his play but he was not at the level to become a B d’Or winner. A player can be a legend in a particular team but to be a legend in the world stage is a different ball game.

        • He is the 3rd all time scorer for Argentina. Respect. He was unlucky at the most crucial moment (wc final). He should have scored.. but people remember, Messi also missed a sitter that game. Higuan was used as a scape goat and it broke his confidence for the NT. Meanwhile he broke records in serie A. Sad the media and trolls went hard on him at the same time his mom died.

          Grande pipita. Thank you!

          • Who disrespected Higuaín? Or, what is considered “not showing respect” in your book?

            People are so driven by their emotion that they can’t handle objectivity anymore.

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