Superstar Lionel Messi graces the cover of TIME magazine next month, on every edition except for the US, because America is dumb like that sometimes. The cover asks why Argentina doesn’t love him more.

The answer to that question is pretty obvious: he’s always going to be compared to Diego Maradona, and he’s not snorted nearly enough coke to be as fun at parties. And also he’s never won a World Cup, which is really what you need to achieve that level of adoration in Argentina.

(Although he’s not on the US cover, it is, as our friend, Goal.com flunky Seth Vertelney points out, kinda related.) Messi is shy. TIME ran a cover about shyness in the US. Connect the dots.

Further Reading: TIME’s interview with the man himself.