Nashville SC striker Sam Surridge shared his thoughts on the mental and emotional challenge of competing with Lionel Messi in this season's race for the MLS Golden Boot.
According to Goal, the opportunity to compete with one of soccer's all-time greats has added an extra dimension to Surridge's breakthrough MLS season.
He admitted that constantly checking the Argentine's goal tally could drive him “crazy," while describing his Golden Boot battle with the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner has only made it more special.
Surridge told The Overlap US podcast, “It’s obviously made it more special the goals coming this year because I’m competing with him. But yeah, at the same time like throughout the season, I’ve always tried to kind of get to where I want to get to. If I carried on looking at his goals, I think I’d probably go crazy, because he’s scoring every week and it’s very draining."
“Obviously competing with him is nice. But at the same time, I’ve had my goals where I wanted to get to and hopefully I’m not done yet,” he added.
it is worth noting that in a dramatic twist of scheduling, Surridge will face Messi directly on Decision Day when Nashville host Inter Miami at GEODIS Park on Saturday, October 18, as the English striker needs a hat-trick to match Messi's current tally of 24 goals.
