Argentina beats France in historic final, World Cup wins Messi

What could have gone through the mind of Lionel Andrés Messi Cuccittini, 35? With the ball under his arm, he was waiting for the French to stop the complaint with the Polish referee Szymon Marciniak to put it on the penalty spot.

He may have thought of the importance of that moment. It was, after all, the final of the World Cup in Qatar, at the Lusail stadium this Sunday (18), against the then owner of the trophy, France. Perhaps in the confrontation with Mbappé, his Paris Saint-Germain teammate and candidate to succeed him on the throne of the best on the planet.

It was a decision that Argentina, with champagne football, would defeat the European opponent on penalties after an incredible 3-3 in normal time. It became the first South American country to win the tournament since Brazil in 2002.

For a tenth of a second, Messi must have realized that, in his last World Cup game, he had the chance to get closer to his biggest dream. The one unearthed on video recorded when he was a child on the streets of Rosario, his hometown. He said he wanted to defend the Argentine national team and be world champion.

To think of anything, perhaps he blocked out in his mind the sound of the thousands of Argentines inside the stadium and who were once again the majority. The same ones who sang non-stop and, at ten minutes, shouted “Diego” to remember Diego Maradona, who died in 2020.

The 2022 World Cup was the first after his death. And he was conquered, just as he had done in 1986, by a number 10 from Alviceleste, the player that no one can doubt was his legitimate heir: Lionel Messi.

In a brief moment of selfishness, he may have thought that converting that penalty would make him top scorer in the World Cup (seven goals alongside Mbappé) and elected the star of the competition. This would bring up another image, that of himself slowly climbing the steps of Maracanã in 2014, after his team was defeated by Germany in the decision.

The striker was voted the best of the tournament and, to receive the award, he had to pass a few meters from the world cup without being able to touch it.

As the mind collects images that are related, the memory of the tears he shed that afternoon in Rio de Janeiro would make him think of other tears. Like the defeats in the Copa America 2015 and 2016 decisions,. After the latter, he even said that he would no longer play for the team. He backtracked shortly afterwards.

But tears in Lusail were really shed by Ángel Di María. The attacking midfielder, a surprise in the lineup and who always seems to get injured in important tournaments, broke down in tears when he scored Argentina’s second goal at 36 minutes. From Paul and MacAllister before arriving at number 11.

The two-goal lead, the biggest in a first-half Cup final since Brazil v France 1998, was too much for manager Didier Deschamps. Before the break, he made two offensive changes. He fielded Thuram and Muani. Upon seeing the change plate, Olivier Giroud, who would leave, looked in disbelief.

In his last World Cup game, in the biggest make-or-break of his career, Messi’s memory may have gone far. Perhaps in 2004, when the AFA (Argentine Football Association) hastily set up an under-20 friendly against Paraguay just for him to play and thus annul the possibility of defending Spain, where he had lived since he was 13.

The rush was so great that no one even knew how to find him. When the Association official found his father, Jorge, he said that his son, Leonardo, would be summoned. Managers didn’t even know Messi’s first name. They thought that since his nickname was Leo, he couldn’t be Lionel.

Facing Lloris, the goalkeeper from the same France who ended his dream in the round of 16 in 2018, Messi, if you pay attention, had the chance to hear once again in Qatar the mass screaming his name with arms outstretched in movements up and down, like someone worshiping a sacred totem.

He was so concentrated that no companion approached. Neither did Rodrigo De Paul, who had one of the greatest individual performances by a player in a World Cup final.

A veneration that grew over time. Lionel might have thought that in the past he was accused of not singing the anthem, not caring about the national team, playing well only for Barcelona, ​​not putting in the effort for the team as he should have.

Or that he was about to erase the disappointment of Argentine fans, “the best in the world”, as coach Lionel Scaloni defined it.

Already with the ball on the ground and hearing the whistle of the Polish referee, Lionel Messi had the chance to think that the traumas of the national team in 1990 and 2014, when he fell in the final, and his personal ghost in World Cups, were about to end. It was something that could make anyone nervous. But he himself has already said that he was really afraid, he only felt it when he was a child, for Newell’s Old Boys, and he had to take a penalty in the derby against Rosario Central.

In the World Cup final and against France, he charged as if football, for him, was the easiest thing in the world. And is.

It may have crossed your mind that the game was decided. How not? But Mbappé was on the field, he equalized twice and it looked as if he would spoil the Argentinian’s coronation with a 2-2 draw and extra time.

Messi certainly imagined the injustice of it all and feared the disappointment in his goodbye. But it only served for him, one of the greatest players in history, to score a goal from the center forward, pushing the ball beyond the line after Lloris’s rebound.

Lionel Messi waited 16 years and four World Cups for the moment of his final consecration. When the Pole blew the whistle for the last time, he was sure it was all worth it.