1003 games, 793 goals and counting, seven Ballon d’Or, and yet for many Lionel Messi’s legacy still hinged entirely on one afternoon of football.
In a tournament where atmospheres have been patchy to say the least, Messi’s presence in what is his last World Cup was enough to provide a cutting, partisan setting inside the Lusail Stadium. It says it all.
Before a whistle had even sounded for kick-off, this was very clearly the Messi show. The pressure was on. It’s nothing he isn’t used to, though. And crucially, the occasion wasn’t one that could ever scar his legacy as the greatest footballer of all time.
Ever-changing storylines and sub-plots are what make a World Cup great, thus it’s fitting that the tournament came to a close in the same fashion. Messi, for how immortal he has looked for so long, entered this tournament aged 35, his powers on a football pitch naturally waning. The clock was ticking and that’s okay.
” Lifting the World Cup is merely the cherry on top of a career that will likely never be repeated again.”
However, Argentina entered the World Cup as Copa America winners and off the back of a 36-game unbeaten streak. The hype was all too real. In the Autumn of his career, this could finally be the moment Messi lifts football’s most illustrious prize. And with long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo gunning for the same objective but seemingly lighting everything around him on fire, the path looked clear for La Albiceleste.
That was until they were beaten by Saudi Arabia in matchday one. Argentina looked completely shell-shocked and Messi looked worringly mortal. The narrative that everyone had been dreaming about was frantically being ripped up and rewritten in a fashion that resembled WWE under the final hours of Vince McMahon’s watch.
But what fun is a story without stumbles?
That matchday one defeat would only go on to make Argentina’s run to the final, and Messi’s performances along the way, all the more glorious. The ‘one last dance’ cliché has been used to no end throughout the 2022 World Cup, but it’s fitting in the way that the Paris Saint-Germain forward has picked his moments to roll back the years, slaloming around defenders and creating goals in the blink of an eye.
A goal and an assist against Netherlands in the quarter-final and the same feat again in the semis against Croatia. Top that off with a yet another vintage Messi performance in the final against France and you’re looking at an unforgettable tournament campaign from the…
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