How he won Argentina the World Cup in 2022 will remain one of the greatest stories in sport. On the grandest of all stages, Lionel Messi conjured up an act of magic for ages.
That final, which ended 3-3 after extra time and thus went into the shootout, was watched by about 1.5 billion people across the world. Those fans would have felt the match, and the World Cup, was Argentina’s when they saw Messi’s men go 2-0 up after 36 minutes. Messi, though, made it 3-2 with 12 minutes remaining.
He scored two goals in the final against France in what many regard as the finest World Cup game of all time. That was the game in which Kylian Mbappe performed an unforgettable hat-trick. Only Messi could have made the young Frenchman look the second best on that night in Doha. He had opened the scoring from the penalty spot and Angel Di Maria netted the second. The Argentines had that two-goal lead late into the game, till the 80th minute. But within a space of a couple of minutes, Mbappe scored twice to force extra time. In the shootout, Messi and Mbappe took the first kicks for their teams, and scored, too. But, the misses from Kingsley Coman and Aurelien Tchouameni proved costly for France. Argentina’s Lionel Messi kisses the FIFA World Cup trophy after being presented with the Golden Ball award following victory in the FIFA World Cup final at Lusail Stadium, Qatar. | Photo Credit: Getty Images The planet’s most beautiful player deserved to win the biggest prize in the beautiful game. It would have been a great injustice if Messi hadn’t got that opportunity to have that memorable stolen kiss on the trophy. At that time, it wasn’t sure if the living legend would be around for another World Cup. He stamped his authority on that World Cup in a manner only the most gifted could have. He delivered when his team wanted. And he did it with a touch of genius. Remember how he set up that goal for Julian Alvarez in the semifinal against Croatia?