Lionel Messi has the farewell he wanted. Or the stage, at least. On Sunday the striker – a known failure at international level – will play his sixth major final with Argentina. It will be his 26th World Cup match, more than anyone else ever, another combined record; it will also be his last.
“To be able to finish my journey in the final makes me happy, and everything I’ve experienced here is lovely,” Messie said at the end of another night graced by another moment, like a gift given: something to hold on to when He left. . Four days to go.
four days one night Everyone “knew” that this would be Messi’s last World Cup, the feeling that you might not see him clinging to every game again. He knew it too, which is part of the reason why it has developed this way: call it mission, destiny or, simply, enjoyment. Seize the day, there aren’t many left. And yet, 16 years after his first, as a substitute in that 6-0 win over Serbia and Montenegro, hearing confirmation that he was still hitting. Wait What? Will the final be your last? “Yes, for sure it will be,” Messi said on Tuesday night. “There are many years left for the next one [World Cup] and I don’t think I’ll make it. To finish this way is nice.”
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So that’s goodbye as far as Argentina is concerned. Still, what a way to go. It’s not done yet – the best game of all awaits. It’s colossal, of course. But even getting there felt a little like something had been earned, like something had been accomplished. For Messi and about Messi. You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s (almost) gone. In the afternoon at the Lusail Stadium, an Argentinian TV reporter who was at level 0 chose not to ask her last question. Instead, and you may have already seen the clip, he used it to say thank you: “Whatever the outcome, you’ve made people happy,” he said. “You’ve made an impact on everyone’s lives.”
Eventually, she became happy, too, with more than a little help from new and old friends. At the end of the 2016 Copa América, defeated by Chile in the final, he had walked away. He had not always felt embraced, the overwhelming weight; he said he came to feel that it was all his fault. As it was said here: “You had to eat a lot of shit.” Yes, he admitted, but it’s different now. “I have been enjoying it for a long time, everything that is happening to us. To be able to finish all this in the final makes me happy.”
This has been the doctrine of the manager, Lionel Scaloni: tomorrow the sun will rise. Messi has accepted this message and the time he has left; it has also become his message, and there has been a sense that his teammates are invested not only in Argentina’s success but in their happiness, in doing some kind of justice.
“People have understood that this is something we have to enjoy,” Messi said. “We have done extraordinary things: the Copa América, the 36 games unbeaten, a World Cup final. Obviously we all want to win it, but it’s a football game and anything can happen. Hopefully, this will be different in Brazil [in 2014, when they lost against Germany]. I don’t know if this is my best World Cup, but I’ve enjoyed it since we got here.”
In Qatar he has five goals and three assists. The stellar moments here are his. The goal against Mexico and the goal against Australia, very Messi both, seen a thousand times if not quite like that. The absurd assist against Croatia, instant iconography: Josko Gvardiol, the defender everyone was talking about, turned and backwards, hips broken, legs tied in cartoon knots.
Messi leads the statistics of the tournament in goals, assists, chances created, dribbles and fouls suffered. Which hasn’t stopped him yet. He played every minute. It has been Maradona. It has been Maradonaing, indeed. And this is not just about excellence; there is the energy, the expression of commitment, the identification. the sacrifice Messi had been holding his hamstring for a long time, then he did this to Guardiol. It is about the absolute refusal to let go – he was the one who declared that this was not done after the defeat of Saudi Arabia. Leadership, making them happen. There may not be a moment of skill quite like the semi-final, but that doesn’t compare to launching his goal against Mexico.
Lionel Messi’s Argentina teammates want to help their star man end his World Cup career with the biggest prize. Photograph: Shaun Botterill/Fifa/Getty Images
There was the flash of anger that preceded the goal against Australia. The confrontations against the Netherlands. The edge, the aggression, the shit if you will. El: what are you looking at silly? The Argentine fans loved it. Looks like Messi has it too. “It’s always been that way,” insists Scaloni, and there’s a fierce, furious competitor in him, but the fact that the coach had to say it was instructive. They have never felt him so close, nor has he felt them like this. This isn’t just a competition, it’s a cause. A rebellion
“Sometimes it’s an extreme situation, it’s not easy to go out on the pitch knowing you have to win and if you don’t, you go home. We’ve done it since the second game. This has a very high mental cost, and the group has overcome it”, he said. “We have played five finals and we have one more.”
It would be a mistake to forget how he got them to the final before, but that’s something else again. It looks different, sounds different, acts different. Not least because it’s a different generation on the journey with him, his role changing, some of the weight of the past lightened, left behind. But there is also legacy, says Scaloni, in what he leaves them. They, in turn, have been desperate to let him have this last dance.
“What he did in the Copa America was incredible, but I’ve never seen anything like this World Cup in my life,” goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez said. Cristian Romero added: “It’s crazy. Everyone knows what he is as a player, but that’s the type of person he is. He is an example, a guy who always wants more. He’s been hit so hard but he always gets back up.”
During the last few days, a photo has made the rounds: in it, an 11-year-old Julián Álvarez is next to his idol, Lionel Messi. Now he has another 11 years later – this time team-mates, Messi holding him with a head and delighting after the Manchester City striker scored against Croatia.
“The things Leo can do are incredible,” he said, and he had seen it firsthand, there to finish with an impossible assist, the best of the competition. Except maybe the one Messi gave Nahuel Molina in the previous round.
Messi had provided that pass and the tackle pass that released Alvarez, running and passing, to score the second. Meanwhile, it was Enzo Fernández who delivered the ball that led to Messi scoring the first, through the penalty spot. And he, too, had grown up watching the man who gave Argentina the lead, who took them and led them to a second World Cup final, like Maradona.
In 2016, when Messi was thinking of leaving, Fernández posted a message on Facebook where he closed saying sorry and thank you. It said: “How are we, a bunch of nobodies who don’t live with 1% of the pressure you do, 40 million people making ridiculous demands for perfection when we don’t even know you, to try and convince you? Do what you want, but think about staying and enjoying it.”
Now it is finally him, the time of his life and hers that brings us all to a final goodbye.