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With run for the ages, Messi gets shot at a dream farewell
The last tango is on Sunday. All seats have been taken, and most of humanity will be watching whether Lionel Messi can bend a game to his wishes. One more time. Or, in the context of a World Cup final, at long last.
The last tango is on Sunday. All seats have been taken, and most of humanity will be watching whether Lionel Messi can bend a game to his wishes. One more time. Or, in the context of a World Cup final, at long last.
After doing against Croatia what he’s made a career of doing — his goal and one assist that Julian Alvarez converted fashioned a commanding 3-0 — Messi repeated what he had said before coming to Qatar. That he won’t be around on football’s biggest spectacle anymore.
“It’s my last World Cup,” he said after Tuesday night’s semi-final. “It is impressive to end up playing a final. There’s a long way to go for the next one, there are many years and surely because of age I won’t get to it.”
Messi, 35, then added a piece of statistic. “It’s the sixth (World Cup) final that Argentina is going to play and I’ll have played in two. Hopefully, this time it ends another way.”
Messi was speaking after cavorting with Argentina fans whose songs bounced off the terraces before soaring into the night. Songs that mentioned him, Diego Maradona, Maradona’s mother Dona Tota, and Malvinas (Falkland Islands). Songs that said Maradona and his mother were blessing Leo. Songs which segued into chants of “Ole, Ole, Ole, Leo, Leo.” Songs redolent of “orgullo” (pride) and “amor” (love) for the artist whose assists have been things of beauty in this World Cup. He has three of them.
He also has five goals, four at Lusail where the final will be played, meaning out of 12 goals Argentina have scored in Doha, Messi has had a role in eight. And four player-of-the-match awards from this World Cup. At 11 goals, he is Argentina’s highest scorer in the World Cup. At 25 games, he is joint-top with German great Lothar Matthaeus in the World Cup. On Sunday, another record will be his and his alone.
“It seems like we say that just because we are Argentinians and we fall into the trap of being selfish. But I think there are no doubts,” coach Lionel Scaloni said replying to whether he thought Messi was the best ever. “Each time we see him play, he makes us and the players feel something special.”
Taken together with what Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic said before Scaloni sealed the debate — if there is still any — about Messi’s greatness. “In my opinion, he is the best player in the world in the last 15 years. He creates all the difference in quality for the Argentina squad. He is fast, has great technique and plays at a top-notch level.”
Being fast is something not associated with Messi anymore. In a game that has significantly speeded up since he first trotted out in an Argentina kit in 2005, Messi saunters most of the time. He began the semi-final by forcing Josko Gvardiol to turn back and play to his goalkeeper, but, as has so often happened in Doha, stayed on the periphery for large swathes of time.
He also gingerly rubbed the back and side of his left leg spreading concern among Argentine journalists in the vertiginous media tribune of this sprawling stadium with swaying arches.
And then he produced a run in the 69th minute that allayed all fears. A run that began, like in his early days, from the wing. A run that took in its stride Gvardiol, who had stuck to him all evening, and left the centre-back, who is 15 years younger and whose promise was evenly spread over all of Croatia’s come-from-behind wins in this World Cup, trailing. Messi spun him twice and causing so much chaos that three Croatia players left Alvarez unmarked.
No one in World Cup history has an assist and goal in four different World Cup games since 1966.
Not always has Messi been Argentina’s darling. Speak to journalists in Qatar who follow Argentina for a living and they will tell you of the 2011 Copa America in Argentina where announcing Messi’s name fetched a tepid response but Carlos Tevez sent the crowd into raptures. By then, a multiple Ballon d’Or and Champions League winner, Messi was seen as a wunderkind whose best only came in the claret of Barcelona, his club for 18 years before the 2021 move to Paris St-Germain.
It didn’t change through three final losses, two in the Copa America and the World Cup, from 2014 to 2016. It got worse through a disastrous campaign in Russia when, with Maradona in the stadium visibly disappointed, Messi and his team mates were humiliated 3-0 by Croatia. In between there was a meltdown and a short retirement from international football. There was also Pele and Maradona speaking of his lack of personality and Zico saying he doesn’t speak much.
A lot of that change in perception in Argentina happened with the 2021 Copa America title, their first major trophy in 28 years. There has also been a lot of change in Messi. Here, he has spoken out against referees and keeps speaking to them at games. He didn’t mind showing off to Netherlands coach Luis van Gaal and barking in the mixed zone at Dutch striker Wouth Weghorst. The combative, assertive side to Messi has evoked comparisons with Maradona.
And he is playing his best football, “even better than 2014 when he hauled Argentina to the final”, according to a journalist following Argentina since 1986. In 2022, he has had a goal contribution for Argentina every 52 minutes. “Leo is making us dream,” Messi’s former Argentina teammate Sergio Aguero said. The immortality odes are ready. Now they hinge on what happens on Sunday.
