Kolkata: It began with a misplaced pass. A free kick that sailed straight to Spain’s Unai Simon is likely how it ends. In between, through 20 years and six iterations of the planet’s most sporting spectacle, Lionel Messi forged a remarkable World Cup career where the best came after he turned 35.
Twenty-two of Messi’s 33 goal contributions came in the last two editions during which he helped end Argentina’s 36-year wait for a third World Cup and took them to one win away from their fourth. In the 15 games Argentina played in the 2022 and 2026 finals, Messi, 39, was adjudged player of the match 10 times. Till Saturday, he was the competition’s highest scorer with 21 goals and no one has as many assists (12).
It’s been some late flourish. A player with only an Olympics gold, who lived with not-so-subtle digs about not giving his best for the national team, losing three final matches in three years and briefly retiring has since 2021 won pretty much everything international football offered. Only Cafu has played as many World Cup final matches as Messi (3). Only Messi has won the Golden Ball twice.
The first time Messi won that award, given to the best player of the tournament, he looked like he would rather be anywhere else than at the Maracana. The next time he got the same recognition, he was draped in a bisht and bouncing with the bald, gold statuette.
For most of the 2026 finals, Messi was in the running for the Golden Boot. It is the one prize he would have never won if Messi has played his last World Cup match at the stadium where he had paused his international career in 2016. It wouldn’t come in the way of Messi having burnished the tournament with his legacy.
Finals are meant to be won, not played. That was the idea Argentina took to New Jersey. Messi touched the ball 46 times, had one shot, made one key pass and lost possession 13 times. A fitting farewell eludes even those guaranteed footballing immortality.
It meant going gently into the night, his World Cup era possibly ending in the country where Diego Maradona’s did. A banner at the Metlife Stadium showed Maradona and Messi united by the captain’s armband and the World Cup trophy. It was captioned: “Simbiosis”.
It had begun quietly as well, in Gelsenkirchen. Messi, long-haired and 18, came on as a substitute for Maxi Rodriguez for his World Cup debut against Serbia and Montenegro. After the misplaced pass, he provided an assist for Hernan Crespo and scored in the 88th minute but the match was talked about more because of Argentina stringing a sequence of 24 passes for the second goal.
By the time, South Africa hosted the World Cup, Messi had won the Ballon d’Or twice and the Champions League (scoring with a rare header against Manchester United in the final). As per The Athletic, he was averaging over 10 dribbles per 90 minutes and 0.98 and 1.09 goals per match. He had also shown he could play on the right wing and as a false nine. In the only World Cup, Maradona coached, Messi finished without a goal or assist.
Another Champions League title, two more Ballons d’Or and the Argentina captaincy were his before the 2014 finals. Brazil, how does it feel to be bossed in your backyard, Argentina fans taunted the hosts. Set to the tune of “Bad Moon Rising” by CCR, the song got louder as Messi began with a wonderful goal against Bosnia and Herzegovina, broke the deadlock with an angular delight against Iran, and found Angel di Maria for the goal that took Argentina to the quarter-finals. “For me, Leo is the best player in the world,” Javier Mascherano told reporters.
Yet, four man of the match awards, four goals, one assist and the Golden Ball were no compensation for not being able to lead Argentina to a World Cup title.
It got worse in Russia where Argentina, under Jorge Sampaoli, looked rudderless. By the time of the first World Cup in an Arab country, Lionel Scaloni had rebuilt the team around Messi and ended Argentina’s 28-year wait for an international trophy. They came to Qatar unbeaten in 36 matches. Only to start with a defeat to Saudi Arabia.
The turnaround happened when Messi spotted space through a thicket of legs and breached Mexico’s resistance. Messi’s piece de resistance came against the Netherlands when he found Nahuel Molina with a no-look pass. A waltz past Josko Gvardiol followed. After two goals in the final and a successful penalty in the tie-breaker, Messi and Maradona were on the same World Cup page.
Argentina then retained the Copa in 2024, and till Sunday’s final, they weren’t doing much wrong. Wearing a pair of boots named The Last Tango by Adidas, Messi played every minute of the knockout rounds in 2026.
If this is where it ends, it is appropriate to end in Messi’s words in an Instagram story. “Whatever happens tomorrow, this group has already written a story we’ll never forget and no one can erase.”
