Lionel Messi is not riding in the Sunset just yet

He has already got everything he wanted, but is he done yet?

The quick answer to that question is no, he is not. 

The longer answer will take us on a journey of effort, strength, form, quality, and fortune, all the ingredients that are necessary to raise the FIFA World Cup Trophy, the world’s most coveted award in the world of football- yes, I said “football”. 

Lionel “La Pulga” Messi was 35 years old when he was crowned one of the best players of all time after finally fulfilling his greatest sporting wish: to win a World Cup for Argentina. Messi’s childhood dream was in sight, and he zeroed in. There is nothing he truly controls, except on the football pitch, where he plays the sport that has driven his life. The optics of the traditional black-and-gold bisht that the Emir of Qatar placed on him, and the politics of the authoritarian, oil-rich nation, became nothing more than a footnote, much like Russia’s premier Vladimir Putin’s participation in the 2018 Trophy ceremony. Authoritarians seek the photo op, and football’s innate ability to disassociate from these circumstances, while definitely not a cure, is a bitter medicine for some of the symptoms of a sick society.

The energy might not be all there, but his ambition and passion for the game still rival those seen in the old videos from when he was eight, juggling with the ball while warming up ahead of a game in a packed stadium, with fans in awe of him at his hometown club, Newell’s Old Boys, in Rosario, Argentina. That boy hasn’t left his 39-year-old heart. And from the looks of the first round, he hasn’t come to parade his long-time achievements before the global audience; he is here to try the impossible, the Yurchenko Double Pike, the reverse 4.5 summersault, the 9.58-second 100-meter run, and the successful defense of the World Cup, which only two teams have ever achieved, Italy (1934-1938) and Pele’s Brazil (1958-1962). 

There is no confusion about the difficulty of the task. With the faith and enthusiasm of not just Argentina fans but Messi supporters worldwide after his first-round performance, and with the way the team closes ranks around him, there is plenty of room to dream. However, nothing has been written, and much of the World Cup drama is yet to unfold.

Six goals in the group stage of this tournament have placed the little man from Rosario in the company of some of the greatest strikers in football history, including Sandor Kocsis (Hungary, 1954) and Gerd Müller (West Germany, 1974), with 7 each; Just Fontaine (France, 1958); and Oleg Salenko (Russia, 1994), with 6 goals. All in the first round, however, none of this warrants standing on top at the final whistle when the final at MetLife Stadium comes on July 19. Of the above-mentioned players, only Müller lifted the FIFA trophy after beating one of the most consequential teams in modern football, Johan Cruyff’s Netherlands, the “mechanical orange”.

Winning the FIFA World Cup requires a very complex alignment, a combination of talent, grit, team play, and luck—lots of it. The components of this formula are far from scientific, really far from it, and its ingredients are also abundant among other contenders for the final victory. The alchemy of blending these factors then has to pass the test of shots hitting the crossbar, millimeter-perfect VAR offside decisions, concentration errors, players’ health, and tough opponents with alchemy of their own.  

Now shy of 40, Messi is in some of the final laps of his career, with the checkered flag already in the race chief’s hands, but make no mistake, he still wants to be first. His case is compelling; his legs might not move as fast, but his football IQ is unmatched; he has a team that adores him, as Zlatan says on Fox, “a team that goes to war for him,” and a coach with the right mix of vision and pragmatism who knows everything about his players.  

Messi has had one of the most successful careers in football history. His career has been far from perfect, marked by youth medical issues, injuries, defeats, and criticism that he “only won titles with his club (FC Barcelona).” Some of his harshest critics went on to say “he is not one of us” because of his early departure at age 13 to FC Barcelona. His international career with the national team was full of obstacles and sad nights. He came so close to winning the World Cup in Brazil 2014, and after the 2015 Copa America final loss to Chile, he declined the tournament’s MVP award. The 2018 Russia World Cup left a messy picture, culminating in a player uprising against coach Jorge Sampaoli. 

A new generation of players came to the pitch, kids who had grown up watching him play. Under the direction of a relatively unproven coach, Lionel Scaloni, they stepped into the fray around Messi and transformed the squad into one of the country’s best national football teams in history. Then the trophies followed: the 2021 Copa America win in Brazil, the 2022 consecration in Qatar, and the 2023 Copa America. His career numbers had already made him one of the most consequential players in history, but with the new additions to the trophy room, Messi reached football Mount Olympus among the GOATs. 

And the best part is that Messi is not done yet. 

He could slow down, but anyone who watches MLS regularly knows he hasn’t. He smiles when he scores; even in training, he rejoices when his teammates score. He is addicted to trophies, and whatever happens, with Holland and Germany already out of the tournament, that is a lot. He is here to do the business of winning. His teammates, the technical staff, the fans, the entire country of Argentina, and Argentina fans everywhere believe that if anybody can accomplish the double world championship, it is him. 

This is not triumphalism; all bets are off come Friday when they meet this tournament’s surprise, Cape Verde. I would be underselling the incredible disappointment that would follow if Argentina were upset. Argentinians, and I can vouch for that, have a fanatical belief that we are always candidates, we were with Maradona, without Maradona, with Messi, and we will be without Messi as well. But it is important to stress that this goes one game at a time, and rivals deserve respect; all games are difficult. It’s 11 against 11 for 90 minutes, and history and context stay on the stands. Games have to be played and won. 

What I want to claim here today is that whatever happens today, and whichever team gets its rightful place in the tournament’s history at the end, whoever wins the golden boot, in this case especially, intention is everything. That’s just for having arrived here, even if it’s just temporary, for having already put his name in the books as the top scorer in World Cup history, above Klose with 18 goals, and for the love and respect he has proven everywhere, even from direct rivals, in a country assailed by authoritarian ambition, even if he has to fly home tomorrow night; this has already been Messi’s World Cup.

Follow us on bluesky

Follow us on Twitter