Month: December 2022

Lionel Messi begins his journey into football’s golden sunset with teammates weaving across the pitch. He had just scored a Hollywood choreographed goal in the 108th minute of a frenzied World Cup final, his final game on football’s biggest stage. Limbs waved around him. Friends besieged him. The deafening roar resounded through Lusail Stadium. The voice rose again as Messi undercut his right, and louder as he spun around the arena, causing more noise, all in celebration of the would-be winner. It lasted almost two full minutes.

All the while, it was Kylian Mbappé who stood in midfield patiently waiting for the football to pay homage to the king.

For just over three hours at Lusail on Sunday, Mbappe put up with fate. He watched his sport triumph over the greatest sport of all time. Then he devised his own bold alternative script. It co-starred King Leo and the man who would eventually dethrone him as co-leads in the greatest sports story of all time.

Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé displayed their brilliance in Sunday’s World Cup final in Qatar. 

Argentina 3, France 3, World Cup final “Eternity”, a perfect mashup of Mbappe’s script and Hollywood script. It has too many characters and chapters to recall, too many twists and exciting turns. It’s ridiculous and memorable for many reasons, but most importantly because it features two of the greatest players on the planet.

It crowned Messi as the undisputed greatest player of all time.

In the process, it elevated Mbappe to a stratosphere achieved only by Messi and a few others in football’s multi-century history.

The score remained 2-0 until the 80th minute approached, when Mbappe sent a brilliant pass over the Argentine defense. That led to a penalty, which the 23-year-old converted, setting the scene for the play.

A minute later, it took Mbappe just half a second to put Argentine defender Navier Molina behind him. After he finished, a ball floated towards him at the top of the box and, as it hung in the air, Mbappe’s charming authority rippled through the rafters of the Lusail Stadium in a fleeting moment. Argentine fans huddled in horror as he rolled his hips and announced his intentions. Neutrals are primed for greatness. The French fans erupted, thousands of voices by the millions, almost before Mbappe swept Amy Martinez with a majestic volley. Because greatness has a sense of inevitability.

Kylian Mbappé netted a hat trick Sunday to bring his World Cup goalscoring tally to 12. He’s 23.

Mbappe and Messi are completely different players, but they share a superpower that shocks them almost every time they have the ball. It inspires anticipation and fear. The fan prepares to cast the spell; the opponent braces himself to defend against it, which is usually impossible. From the 82nd minute on Sunday, Mbappe turned the game upside down with every touch. Everyone sent the Argentine defender back, scrambling to protect himself from his stride, just as opponents had long tried to prevent Messi’s passes and dribbles.

However, Mbappe is still terrorizing them. He seemed to grab every loose ball late in the second half and drive it to opposing defenders. They looked petrified by him, hesitant to even attempt a tackle near the box for fear of slowing down for a split second and conceding a clumsy penalty.

He also checked his right foot and curled into a delightful cross that almost grabbed Randal Kolo Muani’s head. He was in and out of defensive dead ends. He creates danger almost from nothing. In the 124th minute of an unfathomably grueling game, he knotted Cristian Romero in the left corner, cut into the box, and then — a billion viewers unanimously agreed: No, he can’t, isn’t it?

When Argentina had the ball, he would stay high and wide, thus putting immediate pressure on the Argentines when they lost the ball. He slammed a right-footed shot towards Martinez and it was ultimately Messi who was delayed into the sunset. Mbappe’s shot hit the Argentine’s hand. Mbappe completed his hat-trick – the first by a losing player in a World Cup final – to send the game to penalties.

Messi finally completed the World Cup lore on the shoulders of his teammates. He ended his unparalleled career with a lost trophy. He ends all rational GOAT debates with his second World Cup Ballon d’Or and his seven Ballon d’Ors. He was a magician, the greatest shooter, creator and dribbler of his generation. He now has the World Cup that Cristiano Ronaldo doesn’t. He already had longevity and consistency that Diego Maradona didn’t have, facing a level of competition that Pelé never faced. He is in a class of his own.

Lionel Messi’s second goal Sunday, and seventh in Qatar, briefly put Argentina ahead 3-2.

But as he romped around the Lusail Field on Sunday night, reveling in what he called his “childhood dream,” sitting there was a grown man who could one day rival him. Mbappe sat there, slumped on the France bench, his jersey pulled over his face. Later he moved to the worn grass and sat there plop watching the festivities he wished were his. French President Emmanuel Macron tried to reassure him, but to no avail. Mbappe spared no effort to stage a World Cup final hat-trick – a World Cup final hat-trick! Earlier in the game, he had said that for him “the World Cup is an obsession”, but he didn’t win it. The Golden Boot was no consolation.

But it is a precursor to the next decade. Messi is not retiring, but it will fade one day. Mbappe, meanwhile, is rising as fast as Messi once did. At 23, he has scored more goals and amassed more assists than 23-year-old Messi. He is on track to break France’s goalscoring record in his 20s.

“He will break all records,” team-mate Olivier Giroud said a few weeks ago. Team-mates and coaches speak of Mbappe’s insatiable drive for team and individual success – which, in the words of France assistant coach Guy Stephán, makes him “a player from beyond the planet”.

Messi too, in a nutshell, that’s the recipe for the greatest World Cup game of all time. These are two very good teams, each with unparalleled catalysts.

“Without a doubt, he is the best in history and he proved it in the game,” Argentine midfielder Rodrigo De Paul said of Messi. “He showed it throughout the game.” Messi didn’t achieve his storybook goals, but he got storybook endings; his quality time with the kids on the pitch; his chance to replicate Diego Mara Doner’s photo; he rides the team bus through Lusail towards Moonlight.

Mbappe, meanwhile, sulked respectfully through the post-match interview area as he made his way back to the dressing room, avoiding the spotlight for now.

But he is coming. Of course, he has come, and has been for many years, but his time is coming. Only the Messiah can stop his rise to the football throne.

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