*** 2022 FIFA WORLD CUP ***

Taken from a Sky Sports article.

https://www.skysports.com/football/story-telling/11095/12771021/lionel-messis-world-cup-win-with-argentina-is-the-perfect-ending-for-the-greatest-of-them-all

The defining image of this World Cup was just about its last one. There was a kiss for the trophy. Lionel Messi finally became acquainted with the World Cup. On a night high on drama and higher on emotion, it had the perfect ending for the greatest of them all.

The one prize that had eluded him was won with the help of two nerveless penalties, perhaps the only perceived flaw in his game. Even his other goal came with his weaker right foot. It was a game in which every question was answered. Football? Completed it.

He joins Pele and Diego Maradona as World Cup-winning greats after a final that showcased the magnificence of not just Messi but another in Kylian Mbappe. But in truth this was all about an achievement that separated him from the rest. He has the missing piece now.

The Messi story needed its narrative arc and it is the World Cup that has provided it. People prefer their geniuses flawed, it makes them more compelling. From the days of antiquity, the idea has persisted that there must be a price to pay for one’s gifts, a toll taken.

With Messi, that struggle had long been hard to see. Uprooting to Europe aged 13 inevitably brought challenges but he made the transition seem seamless on the pitch and off it. Even the childhood sweetheart came with him. His life has been characterised by success.

That can leave people a little cold. Gabriel Batistuta said it comforted him that he had lost his Argentina scoring record to an extra-terrestrial. Carlos Mac Allister, who played with Maradona and whose son Alexis is now a World Cup winner alongside Messi, summed it up.

“Without a doubt, Messi is the greatest in all of history,” he said recently. “I am rational. I believe in what I see. Messi's numbers are compelling.” And yet, still there was the caveat that Maradona had given the people emotions that Messi had not been able to provide.

Messi was a Champions League winner as a teenager and scored in two more Barcelona triumphs before the age of 24. He had an Olympic gold medal at 21. Seven Ballons d’Or. 800 goals. One big problem. The Copa America just was not enough.

The World Cup was his final labour, the tournament that would not bend to his will. This fifth and final opportunity had come at a time when his powers had appeared to be waning. He was no longer viewed the best player at his own club let alone on the planet.

That he hauled Argentina to glory after the setback against Saudi Arabia, ensured that we finally saw the struggle. Leads were lost, once to the Netherlands and twice to France. But he endured. He overcame. It did not come quickly or easily. That makes it more special.

His final trick might just be his greatest too. Stripped of the searing pace that when coupled with his ability to manipulate the ball made it almost unfair, this version of Messi is battling against his own 35-year-old body. The physical advantage is with the opponent.

To watch him solve that problem with a glance here and a feint there has been to witness genius. Ronaldo fans never have grasped that it is about more than goals. It is the passes he receives that others cannot. The passes he makes that never require others to break stride.

Messi will know that he needed those others to make this happen, he has always been a team player. He can think back to 2010 to remind him of the need for the right manager. He will recall the misses of others as well as his own in the 2014 final. The mess that was 2018.

Here, it came together amid barbecues with a band of brothers. “Everything that he transmits to his team-mates is something unparalleled, that I have never seen before,” said Lionel Scaloni after the final. “A player, a person who gives so much to his team-mates.”

But that is reciprocated. Julian Alvarez had watched him on television as a child. He was Messi’s legs in Qatar. Rodrigo De Paul spoke of going to war for his captain. He was Messi’s minder. Emiliano Martinez admitted that he would be happier for Messi than himself.

Such responsibility could have been suffocating but cheered on by their supporters, it emboldened him and everyone around him. Burdened with glorious purpose, it became a mission – and the clarity of that mission helped carry them all the way to victory.

Messi might be elevated to sainthood in Argentina but this was also a World Cup that showcased his ruthless side like never before. He has learned to embrace the emotions with the national team and that has been a factor in Argentina’s success under Scaloni.

So beloved is Messi that there were occasions during this run to glory when even his opponents appeared to be willing him on to win the World Cup. Mexico captain Andres Guardardo took his young son up to Messi to meet his hero after their group game.

Australia’s players were queueing up for selfies after being beaten in the round of 16. Croatia striker Andrej Kramaric said beforehand that he wanted Messi to win it. “Perhaps even some French people would like to see him win,” offered Didier Deschamps.

An English radio phone-in after the final ran a debate featuring callers who claimed that Messi winning the World Cup was preferable to England winning it. He has long been seen as this benevolent figure – in juxtaposition to his great rival Cristiano Ronaldo.

But a new Messi has emerged. After losing in the Copa America in 2019, his claim that ‘Brazil control everything’ resulted in a ban. In winning that trophy last year, he yelled at Yerry Mina after beating Colombia in the semi-final, unhappy at his earlier histrionics.

Messi’s celebration after scoring against the Netherlands was designed to goad their manager Louis van Gaal. So ill-tempered was that particular game that even in victory he refused Wout Weghorst’s handshake. “I am very disappointed,” said the Dutchman.

It is at odds with the calm demeanour that Messi often conveyed in Catalonia but Argentina is culturally different and there is a demand for their heroes to display this feistiness when fighting for the nation. It has made it easier for supporters to identify with him.

If Messi had to change to adapt to Argentina, so Argentina had to change to adapt to Messi. Tactically, Scaloni understood that his team’s best chance – perhaps their only chance – of winning this World Cup was to bring the best out of the best. That was his starting point.

He needed runners around him and Scaloni provided them. Whether it was Nahuel Molina from defence, Alexis Mac Allister from midfield or Alvarez ahead of him, the passing options were always there. If Argentina just kept it together, they knew Messi could do the rest.

He occupied that half space from where he could do the most damage and it became a World Cup of Messi moments. His intervention against Mexico. His momentum-shifting magic against Australia. The pass against the Netherlands. The dribble against Croatia.

Despite periods in which he seemed to be strolling through matches, or perhaps even because of them, he was able to be decisive. He became the first man ever to score in the group stages of a World Cup and then the subsequent four knockout rounds.

Seven goals in all. Only Mbappe’s late penalty prevented him from becoming the first to win the Golden Boot, the Golden Ball and lift the trophy as captain. He had the most shots at the tournament, created the second most chances and completed the third most dribbles.

n doing that and more, he has flipped the narrative. The World Cup is no longer a stick with which to beat him but the scene of his greatest triumph. He overtook Maradona’s tally of World Cup goals against Australia. He surpassed Pele’s total against France.

Those icons of the game became so by winning this tournament. Messi was already there. And so, there was almost a sense that the World Cup needed him to win it. After all, how could it be seen as the game’s ultimate prize when its ultimate player had not lifted it?

It is moot now. Messi has done it.

“I can’t ask for anything anymore,” he said after his coronation. “After this, what will there be? I was able to get the Copa America, World Cup. It came to me almost at the end.” And, on a night of magic and after a month of memories, his legacy was sealed with a kiss.