On his way to the last challenge of his life, the most important, the most desired, the definitive, the most elusive after four frustrated attempts, Lionel Messi is expanding his legend. Perhaps he will not win the World Cup with Argentina, although he only has two games left: the semifinal against Croatia and the hypothetical final. He’s not that close yet golden title as in 2014, when they lost in the final against Germany. But his performance in Qatar will go down in the history books of the competition. An indelible name.
First through the numbers, which make him an unforgettable footballer (he already is), unique, the same as those he wrote in the America’s Cup 2021, the first major title he won with Argentina and broke the frustration that gave him a complex. Messi led all the offensive statistical sections. Only his name appeared in a series of classifications that, in the Eurocup, played the same summer, several footballers were distributed. He dominated the competition and led the albiceleste to a title that had not been lifted since 1993.In Qatar, Messi is the locomotive that drags Argentina. He has scored four of the team’s nine goals and has provided two assists. The agonizing triumph over the Netherlands carried the exclusive stamp of his signature. He gave the fabulous assist to Nahuel Molina that no orange defender sensed and scored the second goal from a penalty. He then added the first penalty of the shootout.
A collective sport?
The two stops of Emiliano Martinez and Lautaro’s fifth shot claimed that football is a collective sport. Although no one can argue that without Messi’s individuality, Argentina would be a very vulgar team and, perhaps, would not even have made it past the group stage.
The goal of the quarterfinals meant the number 2,700 of those scored in the final phases of the World Cups and matched, in the private sphere of the Argentine team, the 10 goals that Gabriel Batistuta had collected, another name that falls from the pedestal, as Diego Maradona previously fell in the other classifications. In the guides for the next edition of the 2026 World Cup, which will be shared between the United States, Mexico and Canada, Messi will appear everywhere. Maybe he’s just missing from the scorer ranking. still is german Miroslav Klose, with 16 goals.
the comrades parade
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In Qatar were the old colleagues of a generation. They have all been marching home. Luis Suárez was the first to say goodbye. On Friday Neymar retired, sunk, with the weak leadership he exercises in the Brazilian team. Cristiano Ronaldo, a rebel and a substitute, left the field crying through the elite exit tunnel, humiliated by the same Morocco that had beaten Spain in the previous tie. Messi is still standing, firm, at the age of 35, regulating the efforts, as they analyzed in the Dutch team and that the Argentines later disfigured, accusing Louis van Gaal and the footballers of disrespect.
No answer is more forceful than the one on the pitch, and Messi spoke where he played. He did not miss the opportunity to also speak in front of the microphones, to which he is so given with Argentina and was so elusive when he was captain of Barça. Messi spoke face to face with Van Gaal, he spoke to other players – “what are you looking at, fool? Go there”, he snapped at Woug Werghost, “the 19th” who did not stop bothering him and who was waiting to ask him for the shirt “–, and he did not shut up before Mateu Lahoz.