Leo Messi chose the final of the finals to win the World Cup, the best way to put an end to the debate about who is the best player in history, because the man from Rosario at times was a beast like Pelé, on occasions he had the determination to Di Stéfano, there was no doubt about his relationship with Maradona and in some play Cruyff’s change of pace was even noticed. There was time to review his career and also that of world celebrities, as well as the most brilliant moments of the tournament in a memorable match, a compendium of the World Cup. It will be enough to see the exciting final in Qatar to explain and understand the reign of the irreducible Messi.
Argentina has been champion since the tournament became the Messi Cup. As of the 2021 Copa América, no one doubted the identification of the ex-azulgrana with the Albiceleste. Maracana then folded to 10 and now Qatar has given up. He reached with blowing so that a penalty fell for Messi’s inventory. Already with the wind in favor, the artistic version of 10 appeared in the 2-0. Mbappé did not forgive when Messi rested until 2-2. The Argentine then reappeared to govern extra time and did not forgive in the penalty shootout after being required for the third time by Mbappé. In good times and bad, in different moods, he commanded the 10.
The phenomenon Messi won the status of favorite of France. Maradona is no longer there, nor Cruyff, nor Di Stéfano and Pelé’s health is worrying. Silence has always favored Messi, surely because he only wanted to be a footballer and not an oracle, uncomfortable with any comparison, even when he already poses with the king’s crown after closing the circle with the World Cup conquest. The Argentine captain no longer has a challenge left to meet his 35 years, League, European, World, Pichichi and seven-time Ballon d’Or champions, after being left out of the last list of 30 nominees for French Football.
Guardiola, the coach who has marked him the most, assured that nothing motivated Messi more than exposing someone who warned him of a challenge to be met, such as scoring a goal with his head, before leaving with the mouth open to Van der Sar in the 2009 Champions League final against Manchester United. Nothing resists the 10 anymore, not even the Cup that he has just won with his game and also with his desire, the differential factor to understand his victory in Qatar. “Tango is desire and desire is what saves us”, says the singer Adriana Varela.
Messi does not seem to like dancing, and yet his football refers to tango for its ability to accelerate and slow down —”deceit, time and distance”, Menotti’s words—, to seduce and govern, to enjoy instead of suffering and also because of the motivation with which he has faced the Cup. Neither Cristiano nor Mbappé have resisted Messi. The Argentine has put an end to his rivals, refuted the critics, disavowed the slanderers and ignored the skeptics and all those who have raised suspicions about his successes, because he always referred to the field and the ball, in Barcelona, Paris, Buenos Aires, River or Lusail.
He was not defeated as a child when some coaches doubted if he would know how to process the music theory of the Masía. Nor when he heard that they called him a “hormonal dwarf” because of the medication he was taking for his growth and that forced him to leave Rosario for Barcelona. And less at times when he doubted his leadership in Argentina considering that he won because he was a product of the best Barça. Messi endured and vomited back on the field the bile generated by injuries and frustrations, the shame of being caught by the Treasury, until he achieved success every season and final glory in the 2022 World Cup.
No one has contradicted the most Argentinean Messi and Maradona because he played each game with the faith that it would not be the last, until the last dance. Life in a match (171) and two goals (98) for the Albiceleste. Messi seized the ball, seized the game, seized the responsibility, seized the victory and seized that Cup that he could only look at with the corner of his eye in Brazil 2014. Messi was no longer watching, as in Maracana, Germany 2006 —hurt by his substitution— , South Africa 2010 —complexed by Maradona— or Russia 2018 —with the anthem— but he felt admired in Qatar.
“What are you looking at, fool! Go there, silly, go there!” exclaimed the 10th the day the striker Weghorst approached him to ask for his shirt after warming up the penalty shootout of the quarterfinal match against the Netherlands. And it is already known that it is better to be bad than stupid in Argentina. The man from Rosario has commanded his team, on the field and in the tournament and his twilight figure has imposed himself on modern football associated with physique and big data, and also to the style, to the tactic or to the method, or if you want to the intensity. The thousand variants, individual or collective, were subordinated to the talent of the 10. Neither athletes nor galactic, but rather they have all come together in Messi.
Messi and the Albiceleste ended up absorbing an exuberant Mbappé, author of three goals, and the imperial France. The French enlarged Messi’s party from the punch of an imposing Kylian. The captain, who was forged in the disappointment of the four previous championships, was very wise in the fifth and final, influential in the game, decisive in goals, very focused on penalties and fun at the party, smiling since he could kiss the Cup while receiving the trophy for the best player in the final. He not only dominated the statistics, but also the sensations due to his freshness and liberation, very selective in his triumphant winter in the Qatari desert.
There are no longer any reproaches for Messi. If at the age of 23 the trophies he lost were deducted, winning the World Cup at 35 is heroic after having already been U-20 champion, Olympic champion in Beijing 2008 and American champion in 2021. Years have passed for many footballers, except for Messi. The king of soccer chose the final par excellence to go on to eternity. He is no longer that silent, humble and frustrated player who cried, but instead talks, laughs and enjoys as a champion, the world at his feet. He never doubted that one day everyone would end up accepting that he is number one.
subscribe here to our special newsletter about the World Cup in Qatar
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
#king #soccer #called #Leo