In a historic duel between two big number 10 shirts, veteran Lionel Messi saw young Kylian Mbappé score three goals in the 2022 World Cup final and take the tournament’s top scorer award from him, but not the competition’s champion and ace trophies .
At the age of 35, the greatest player of this generation ends his career in World Cups with a great performance in Qatar. In his most decisive version, the captain of Argentina was the vice-scorer (7 goals), the best finisher (32 shots), one of the leaders in assists (3) and the vice-leader in passes to finalizations (19) in this World Cup , according to data from the specialized company Opta analyzed by Sheet🇧🇷
To reach the title and the individual trophy, Messi scored goals in 6 of the 7 opponents of Argentina in this campaign, with the exception of Poland.
With two in the decider against France, he became the first player to score at every stage in the current Cup format. Before, he had already scored 2 in the group stage (against Saudi Arabia and Mexico), 1 in the round of 16 (Australia), 1 in the quarter-finals (Netherlands) and 1 more in the semi-final (Croatia).
Messi ends this Cup with a total of 11 shots saved by the goalkeepers —including a missed penalty against Poland—, another 11 outside, and 3 more blocked or deflected by the defenders, in addition to the 7 goals scored.
The left leg was, as always, his main weapon. There were 27 shots with the left hand, 1 with the head and 4 with the right foot – among them the most important goal of his career, in the extra time of this Sunday’s decision. Of the total attempts, the majority happened from inside the penalty area, on 21 occasions.
The number 10 piled up personal marks in the Qatari fields. Since FIFA officially awarded the best player in the World Cup with the Ballon d’Or, Messi is the first to take the trophy in two editions. He had already been elected the star player in 2014, in Brazil, when the Alviceleste team finished in second place.
The number 10 is the first athlete from a winning team to also take the individual award for best player since Brazilian Romário, in 1994. In Qatar, he won the Man of The Match trophy in 4 of the 7 matches of the Argentine campaign, against Mexico, Australia, Holland and Croatia.
In his career, Messi reached a total of 13 goals scored in World Cups, surpassing King Pelé by one. He now appears tied with the French Just Fontaine and behind the Brazilian Ronaldo (15) and the Germans Gerd Müller (14) and Miroslav Klose (16).
The Argentine also broke the record for matches and minutes played in World Cups. Against France, he completed 26 games (between the 2006 and 2022 editions), and surpassed the German Lothar Matthaus, who went to the field 25 times (from 1982 to 1998). With 144 minutes on the field in the final, Messi reached a total of 2,338 in all participations, 122 more than the Italian Paolo Maldini (1990 to 2002).
The ace even extended the record of the highest scorer in Argentina in Cups, which was held by Gabriel Batistuta (10). He had also already surpassed Diego Maradona and Javier Mascherano in the number of editions disputed, when participating in his fifth edition.
The leader of this Alviceleste generation went down in history by becoming, alongside midfielder Ángel Di María, the first player to win the Cup, the Olympics and the Under-20 World Cup.
The World Cup in Qatar will forever be remembered as the one that enshrined and immortalized Messi’s legend. Once criticized for not converting his talent into national titles, the number 10 had already won the 2021 Copa América and now celebrates the dreamed World Cup in 2022.
“I want to play a few more games as world champion,” said Messi, after saying that the title ends his history in World Cups for Argentina.
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