Messi didn’t need this trophy to secure his seat at the table of the game’s legends.
— Kylian Mbappe had converted France’s first penalty in the shootout, the fourth time he’d beaten Argentina keeper Emi Martinez in the World Cup final, following his earlier hat-trick. And so Lionel Messi walked up to take Argentina’s opening penalty.
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Conventional wisdom suggests you generally want your best penalty takers to go last or, at least, when facing elimination. But there was nothing conventional or wise about this final or, come to think of it, this World Cup.
Messi stood for a moment, hands on hips, took his run-up, sent France keeper Hugo Lloris one way and the ball the other way. It was 1-1, and it was now out of his hands. And maybe, there was something hugely liberating to that. There was nothing further he could do to help Argentina win this World Cup and, in the eyes of some, cement his G.O.A.T. candidacy with the biggest prize in team sports. Nothing except cheerlead and be a supportive captain, which he did, greeting each Argentina penalty taker with a hug and a high-five.
Argentina would become champions a few minutes later, when Gonzalo Montiel converted his penalty kick to make it 4-2 and give them an unassailable lead. But it was that moment earlier, after Messi’s spot-kick that the realization must have hit him: « I can’t do any more. » In some ways, it speaks to what had, until one Sunday night in Qatar (a day we’ll have to explain to our grandchildren), had dogged him in his record-breaking career: his failure to win a World Cup.
In a team game, it’s an arbitrary measurement, and in this sport, it’s especially silly. You only get four or five cracks at it, if you’re lucky; you’re often too young for your first opportunity and too old for your last. There’s no guarantee you’ll be fit when the moment rolls around, and unlike in club football, you can’t control your supporting cast because you can’t pick your nationality. Alfredo Di Stefano never won a World Cup. Nor did Johan Cruyff. Nor has Cristiano Ronaldo.
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This is not what determines his status among the G.O.A.T. group or even as the G.O.A.T. outright. But it definitively banishes an undeserved cloud that had been hanging over him for many years.
Messi’s debut for Argentina lasted all of two minutes, and to some, it seemed like an omen. It was the summer of 2005, he was an 18-year-old prodigy-to-be at Barcelona, he came on after 63 minutes and was given his marching orders for a supposed stray elbow 120 seconds later.
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Even as his career took off — even as the club silverware and Ballons d’Or piled up, even as he demolished Argentine national team records for goals scored (which he did in 2016) and appearances (in the summer of 2021) — and even as many had him as the game’s No. 1 (and the rest, the Ronaldo fans, had him as No. 1A) there was that lingering doubt. When would he deliver with Argentina?
Indeed, there were some back home who questioned just how badly he wanted it with his country. After all, he’d left the country aged 13 and moved to Barcelona.
