La Pulce ends without being able to repeat Qatar’s triumph but with a series of suggestions and records that give him the title of greatest in history.
Leo Messi passes and closes. It’s difficult to imagine there could be another World Cup for him in four years, in the centenary edition. The passage of time presents the toll of a champion who came close to finishing as world champion for the second time after Qatar 2022, a circumstance that would have placed him one step above Diego Armando Maradona in the history of world football, not just Argentine football.
His final at MetLife Stadium was contained in a few images, all iconic. Starting from the last one, tears streaming down his face when the adrenaline melted away and he stood in front of his people with the silver medal he had just received around his neck. Sincere, melancholy, not desperate tears. Tears of those who gave everything even if the last performance was not the absolute best of the American World Cup, suffocated by the superiority of Spain which progressively canceled all the passing lines and supplies for the Flea.
Despite this (second image), Leo Messi ended his final without energy. Physical and emotional. Sitting in the middle of the pitch, greeted by opponents and teammates, honored by everyone because everyone was aware of the world. Only for Lamine Yamal made an exception and stood up, a handover between the old man and the young man who, at just turned 19, becomes one of the most precocious world champions ever. The meeting between the two also took place during the match: smiles and caresses.
Despite suffering, Messi also tried to leave his mark on the match against Spain. A match, his, contained in just under a quarter of an hour of the second extra time when he put his talent at the disposal of his teammates by catapulting poisonous balls, magical trajectories, invitations to strike into the middle of the area to achieve what would have been a miracle. All of Argentina had led him to that moment, allowing him to walk almost without interest in the all-out defense of his teammates.
Leo Messi, all the numbers of his World Cup
Eight games played, 8 goals scored. Hat-trick for Algeria, double for Austria and then in sequence Jordan, Cape Verde and Egypt. The streak stopped in the round of 16, but that didn’t make it any less surprising because Messi also wrote his name as an assist man in the historic comeback win against England in the historic semi-final. He became the best scorer ever in a final phase of the World Cup, a record that was however taken from him after a few days by Mbappé.
However, his World Championship records are not over. He became the player to have played in the most finals (3), reaching the Brazilian Cafù but having faced them all as a starter. The highest provider of assists (12) and the only one to have done so in each of the six editions in which he took part, another record shared with Cristiano Ronaldo and Guillermo Ochoa. He put his name in the scoreboard for 9 games in a row like no one before.
