Long before the tournament had started, he had abandoned his album.
In the popular Dutch football programme, VI Oranje, the pundits went as far as describing him as a complete nutcase before the tournament had started.
Australia's tournament had started in the worst possible fashion, a team full of cliques and internal wranglings exposed by a united underdog.
He will be Northern Ireland's great gift to the tournament, having started his footballing education at a Ghanaian academy linked to Glentoran – his first foreign trip was a week's training in Belfast in 2007.
Gareth Hock was thrown out of the squad before the tournament had started after he broke an alcohol ban in the aftermath of England's warm-up defeat to Italy and missed a swimming session, although the forwardclaimed he was not the only player involved.
And yet nobody contradicted Gary Lineker, a previous winner of this competition's Golden Boot, when he met a few of us football writers at his hotel on Ipanema beach last Friday, with some of the best views of the morning surf, and confessed to feeling marginally let down by the way Messi's tournament had started to drift.
Before the tournament had started, he reported to have been approached with a request to participate in spot-fixing.
In every game in this rehearsal tournament, he has started the Fluminense striker Fred.
MELBOURNE, Australia — The burdens of being No. 1 can be enough to make even a young woman nicknamed Sunshine a little gloomy, particularly when that No. 1 player, Caroline Wozniacki, has yet to win a Grand Slam tournament and has started the season with a new racket and some uninspiring performances.
Very much a squad player prior to this tournament, he has started every game in Brazil as coach Low started with four centre-halves across the back four.
