Messi.
There are no words left to describe this man.
If there ever existed the possibility of an argument that the man wasn’t the greatest to ever bless the sport of football, it was that he hadn’t scaled the heights with Argentina that he has done with Barcelona. That he hasn’t taken on Diego Maradona’s legacy and built on it further.
But after he won the Copa America with the national side in 2021, and the newly formed Finalissima – the Euro Cup and Copa America winners facing off – those with keen eyes, his beloved fans, lovers of the sport started to believe that perhaps it was possible.
The World Cup might be within reach.
And now with arguably the greatest final in a sporting event put to rest –Messi leading his team to victory from the clutches of defeat, he has and should finally have ended all debate that in fact he is the greatest footballer to have ever played the sport. There can be no doubt anymore. Nothing can be said, no narratives can be created, and nobody can deny it.
And yet even adding this cherry on top of the massive three-story cake that is Messi’s career, there will exist out in this cruel world critics –naysayers, heathens, heretics who are so joyless and lost that they can’t or refuse to see the beauty and genius in this little man feet.
Yet to my eyes, he has always been the best.
For the pure, once in a century talent that he has been graced with, for his continued humility in the face of billions of adoring eyes, and for his inspiring leadership on the pitch. Anyone who has ever watched Lionel Messi play – particularly during the peak of his powers – will see that there is almost something spiritual about it. He is God-like in his ability –an equivalence that was also thrust on Maradona, but Messi seems to truly be from another planet.
For his ability to recognize his relative frailty in taking penalties, and then to have the audacity to change his style mid tournament, and then score every single one he took. For that ridiculous vision and assist for the goal against the Netherlands, or that underrated reverse pass that kicked off the counterattack against France that led to the second goal, or that cheeky finish against Australia, slotting the ball between four defenders into the corner – the list can go on.
Then there is the small matter of his absolutely alien statistics, which if you followed those alone, you would know that there is literally no other footballer on the planet who even comes close to rivalling him.
And even if I were to take off my Barcelona and Argentina glasses and force myself to look at things as objectively as I can – to indulge these dissidents, and assess his rivals –Cristiano Ronaldo, and now Kylian Mbappe – I will still see that Messi is number one. He is untouchable, and winning this World Cup isn’t proof of that, but reward for already having proven it since he first took to the pitch all those years ago.
I posted earlier on my Instagram an overwhelmingly emotionally driven few words about how Messi is the greatest player to have ever played the sport. Amateur-ish words, but it had to be said.
Gary Lineker, far more verbose than I also wrote something filled with sentiment, adoration, and awe. He is one of many footballers – present and past, teammates and rivals alike who cannot speak anything but praise towards Messi. Dani Alves, Arturo Vidal, Luis Suarez, Neymar –former teammates, friends of his, yet from different South American nations, each united in sharing praise for the best in history. They are just a few of the hundreds of other sportsmen and sportswomen having done so.
Why? The easy answer is the simple one: he deserves it.
The complicated, deeper one is that Messi has had such an intangible impact on the sport and its audience that it has become impossible to deny his magnificence or finds words to describe it. It was never just about his impact on the pitch. Billions of people in the world willed for this to happen. To repeat an overused cliché: it was written in the stars; there was a sense of destiny that this was Messi’s and Argentina’s tournament.
I had joked on the day of the final that if you were a human being – even if you were French – and had a heart and a soul, you would be supporting Argentina. There was some truth to that statement as we now see the unity in praise towards Messi and his Argentina team. The French – gracious in defeat – will I’m sure accept this loss seeing as it was the great man and his team they lost to.
And Messi wasn’t alone in winning this for his country. This Argentina team grew into the tournament, peaking at the right time, but more importantly united like I’ve never seen before. There was a belief and a common purpose they were all fighting towards, and they were being drawn to it as if being led by God. And they were, by Messi.
Like in the Copa America in 2021, Messi was more than ably complemented by Emiliano Martinez, who made huge saves in the shootout both against the French and the Dutch and more importantly, denying Randal Kolo Muani a chance to win the final 118 minutes into the match. In the Copa America he was a hero during the shootouts, burgeoning his reputation as a shithouser—someone that gets in players’ heads, intimidates them and messes with their concentration.
Another player who had an incredible tournament but will not get a huge share of the headlines was Rodrigo de Paul. He is by no means a classic technically gifted midfielder that we were used to seeing Messi play with. And he’s not your typical South American bruiser in midfield either, selected solely to fight and maim opponents. He’s a bit of both, full of running, so often the spare man in attack, and always the one charging back covering up any holes left in defence. He had his best match of the tournament in the final, and it’s fitting that he receives some of the praise as well.
Then of course, there was Angel di Maria, the scorer of the second, the winner of the penalty for the first, the man who won Argentina’s Copa America in 2021, and the player who was so obviously the best on the pitch for the 60 minutes he on it. Messi’s friend from the youth stages, his partner in crime, the player with whom Messi has already won so much for Argentina over the years. Having won already the U20 World Cup, the Olympics, and the Copa America, and lost the World Cup final in 2014, and then again the two Copa America finals in 2015 and 2016, this World Cup was the crown jewel that both players deserved. They won it for each other, for their nation, for Diego, for Alejandro Sabella, for Sergio Aguero and for everyone else that was Argentine for those two and half hours.
A word must also be said about Mbappe. Already the powers that be are drawing up narratives to lay down that Mbappe will be Messi’s successor, his heir apparent, the next GOAT in the line of GOATs. And he very well might be.
His numbers are already outrageous. His poise and grace on and off the field must be admired, most especially when he remained stoic despite French president Emmanuel Macron’s best efforts to get a reaction out of him for the cameras, and when he calmly collected his Golden Boot award and walked off stage expressionless.
Mbappe has already won the World Cup, he has scored as many goals as Pele did in the tournament in far fewer matches. He will be back and will very likely win another won. On the club level, Mbappe will continue to rip up the French league’s goal stats records and will undoubtedly have a massive influence on the sport. But will he have as much of an influence as Messi has had and will continue to have until the very sad day comes when he hangs his boots up?
Time will tell.
Then there is the other – He Who Must Not be Named, so often touted as the only other player who can pip Messi to the crown – Cristiano Ronaldo.
At the peak of their powers, the two great rivals were pound for pound the best to ever do it, yet while Messi has taken his naturally expected decline with grace and adapted to the sport by changing the way he approaches it, Cristiano has done the opposite. He has dug his heels in the sand, his egomaniacal personality – which many former players claim sportsmen need – fighting against the laws of nature blindly. He craves the spotlight, grasping for it tighter and tighter as both it and the sport slowly start to slip through his fingers. He is no longer in the conversation with Messi. He is slowly fading away into an afterthought in people’s minds with his pettiness, not least of which trying to claim a teammates goal as his own, angrily walking off the field when substituted, and allegedly threatening to leave the Portugal camp.
Messi united his teammates, who fought hard to win it for him; Ronaldo divided his, who would probably have been better off without him.
Arguments can be made now that Ronaldo is slowly starting to chip away at his legacy.
Messi on the other hand has cemented his name into history, not just in Argentina, but around the world. Not only have his extraordinary numbers, and presence on the pitch been factors, but so have his sheer class and humility off the pitch. Messi’s leadership ability has often been questioned. He doesn’t have the outspoken public persona that people perceive leaders need. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Jose Mourinho, Sir Alex Ferguson, Roy Keane– these are names that come to mind when people think of great leaders.
If there was ever a case study for scholars to read about how an individual with seemingly impossible odds grabbed the world by its balls and did it so without arrogance, hubris, and a sense of self-superiority, it would be to analyze the life of this man. It is no doubt the entire package that makes him truly great.
It was fitting therefore that when Gonzalo Montiel slotted in that winning penalty and that when Messi fell to his knees in joy and relief, he was mobbed by his teammates. Aguero flew down from the stands to celebrate with his best mate. All throughout the tournament the Argentine players have gone to bat for each other, their prize, their diamond tucked safely in the middle.
Now they can rest. Messi can enjoy, and so can we. For whatever time he has left in the sport should be admired and appreciated because we will never ever see another like him. He is firmly, undeniably the greatest to have ever played the sport.