Perfect farewells do not exist. Not because they are impossible but because the odds of so many things falling into place – a bulk of which one is not in control of – are infinitesimal. Despite the power of hope, reality often jostles its way through a resolute web of emotions and triumphs over fantasies. Our minds through a persistent societal narrative have been trained to see the character arc of our heroes to reach the ultimate crescendo in the end. That’s literally every story we’ve ever heard.
But there’s a slightly less excitable side to us that prefers experiencing reality. It prefers keeping us from running wild with our imaginations and force-feeds those bitter doses of reality that convince us that our hopes and prayers, in the end, are just that. They have no business manifesting in our material reality.
It is unlikely that Lionel Messi has not processed this philosophical fodder in the last eight years. Despite being the most perfectly crafted footballing specimen, that fateful night at the Maracanã in 2014 must have forced him to resign to the fact that the last piece of the puzzle was not to fit; that no matter how much he chased it, that perfect ending that would immortalise his legacy would continue to elude him.
Perhaps that sense of despair is much harder to come to terms with for those who have rarely experienced ordinariness the way the rest of us do. There’s nothing ordinary about Messi’s life. There’s never been. Right since his days as a young boy, he was destined to reach the levels few would consider possible. Making peace with not realising his one final dream perhaps would require a complete unlearning of the very way he’s understood life. To stop the pursuit was never an option. That perfect ending just had to come together.
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That Messi even got a chance to script that one last swansong in Sunday’s final at Lusail Stadium in Qatar involved one chance too many. Argentina began their World Cup trail on the worst possible note, conceding defeat to a team they may never again lose to. To then deliver six straight wins with Messi dropping clinic after clinic felt too ridiculous to be true. As is often the case in tournament campaigns, luck was fairly kind on Argentina, with Brazil in particular bowing out before the two were expected to collide in a high-profile semi-final clash.
But that’s as far as luck was going to take Messi. Between him and the ultimate prize, now stood France; but more importantly, Kylian Mbappe. Against the Frenchman, who looks destined to be the greatest player in the post-Messi world, Argentina had no place to hide. There are players who beat you with superior execution of the skill. Mbappe doesn’t stop there. He hurts you. And hurt Mbappe did in the final; to the point where recovery seemed out of Argentina’s reach.
In the end, the added drama perhaps contributed to the enormity of the biggest stage in Messi’s life. A rather straightforward 2-0 win that looked all but sealed at one point wouldn’t quite have made the victory half as riveting. Mbappe infused life in the contest that led to a climax so dramatic, it now remains the greatest World Cup final in anyone’s living memory – many would say the greatest game of football they’ve watched.
France’s Kylian Mbappe celebrates scoring his team’s third goal to complete his hat-trick in the 2022 FIFA World Cup final against Argentina. Photo: Reuters/Dylan Martinez
By any realistic account, Messi has already played his last World Cup game. But it wasn’t so clear heading into the tournament. Despite Argentina being strongly billed as one of the favourites along with France and Brazil, at no point was Messi’s triumph an imminent eventuality. He had to earn every second of it and that he remained central to every win must have been personally gratifying for him – particularly after a forgettable outing in 2018, where he was often seen indifferently parked on a flank in the moments Argentina desperately needed him to step up and take charge.
That was anything but the case this time around. Messi not only was more involved in every attacking build-up but consistently managed to manufacture those inspiring moments that turned games decisively Argentina’s way. The two assists he delivered in the quarter and semifinal against Netherlands and Croatia respectively remain the clear standout moments of the World Cup. The eye for that carefully weighted pass piercing through no less than four Dutch players to meet just about perfectly a Nahuel Molina on the run was a throwback to the times Messi would routinely make a joke out of this sport.
If that assist was a reminder that his vision and instincts remain perfectly intact, Messi felt it was time for some more showboating – this time of his physical tenacity and speed on the ball. With a comfortable two-goal lead in the semifinal, Messi out of nowhere picked the ball on the flank and dragged Croatia’s Joško Gvardiol wide before making a run. While Gvardiol followed his man, Messi ran, narrowed the angle before drawing wide again, turned, cut back in, pirouetted, and furnished a pass for Julian Alvarez to complete the easiest of finishes.
In what was in essence only a 12-second gameplay, Messi made sure everyone remained amply mindful of the gap. It was outright audacity. The match situation didn’t desperately plead for him to channel that rarest bit of wizardry to rescue a dwindling dream. Messi anyway pulled it because, well, he can. It was arguably the signature moment that’ll forever make the thumbnail of every Messi compilation hereafter. It also put that golden ball out of anyone else’s reach.
It’s worth wondering if the story of this World Cup would’ve been documented differently had Argentina gone on to lift the trophy without Messi dropping his single greatest streak in international football. His individual brilliance at this stage had already been rewarded in 2014, when he was declared the player of the tournament but Argentina could only finish second.
Argentina’s Lionel Messi kisses the trophy as he celebrates winning the World Cup. Photo: Reuters/Hannah Mckay
Their run in Qatar might as well have been all about the younger, fitter, and more driven teammates carrying him to the title while he himself had little impact and it honestly wouldn’t have mattered. He’d still have been the main character of this story because every word of it was written around his imminent tryst with this trophy.
All his teammates were playing with a higher purpose in their hearts. Messi was the quintessential grand old man this time and they owed him everything. The manager, Lionel Scaloni, built this team to get the best out of him in every situation. The football community at large too – media, fans, former players – was in unison with the narrative.
The fervour was both real and palpable. Every single move of genius that Messi produced through the tournament was accentuated by Peter Drury’s words on the broadcast. Had he faltered at the final hurdle one more time, it’d have defeated the greatest football story of all time. When Sevilla’s Gonzalo Montiel converted his kick from the spot to win the World Cup for Argentina, it was pretty much a moment of truth for all those who’d made Messi’s pain from all those years personal.
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Drury combined his ecstasy with sophistry to do justice to the magnitude of the moment. It wasn’t the most uniquely exceptional World Cup. It just felt that much more special because the trophy was heading to the man it perhaps should have made its way to much sooner.
Was a World Cup really all that critical in appraising Messi’s final legacy once he finished playing? After all, it’s only a month-long quadrennial celebration of sport played in an unforgivingly harsh format where one bad game has irredeemable consequences.
Given the statistical scale of Messi’s achievements in a nearly two-decade-long career, his legacy cannot possibly hinge on a tournament of inherent volatilities – Emiliano Martinez fails to make that supernatural save in the dying seconds of extra time in the final and it was curtains for Messi’s dream. It makes little objective sense to decide legacies on margins that fine.
Messi didn’t need the World Cup to be unanimously regarded as the greatest ever – his body of work sufficiently holds him up and above everyone. Messi needed it to most authoritatively put an end to that conversation that continues to be had in mostly rhetorical and populist language. And he could never have settled that cultural debate without breaking the World Cup curse.
The large shadow that Diego Maradona casts over Argentina’s footballing landscape is unbelievably hard to emerge out of. Gabriel Batistuta knows this. So does Juan Román Riquelme. Well, not only has Messi emerged out of it but in the process, he took his popularity to a point where not rooting for his success became concerningly abnormal behaviour. Football’s greatest son is now also its most loved one. Not the worst résumé to have you’d reckon.
