BarcelonaAfter so many years of spreading joy with his football, Messi is finally the happiest man in the world. The little genius has left for the end of his career the biggest challenge, to win the cup he wanted most. And he did it in penalties, suffering bravely after a game that will be remembered for years and years (3-3). The cup that the Argentines had won for the last time 36 years ago, when Messi was not even born, returns to Buenos Aires. Lionel Scaloni’s team will sew the third star on their shirt after defeating France in a final that seemed to be danced to the rhythm of tango, cumbia and bandoneon, until Mbappé equalized with three goals to add excitement to a game that seemed dictated for judgment. He had to wait until penalties, with a save from Back Martínez and an unexpected hero, Montiel, scoring the last penalty to kick off the Argentine party.
The Argentines seem destined to suffer forever, but it has been worth it. If eight years ago their legs trembled in the final played in Rio de Janeiro, in Doha they beat France to the crown of champions to put it on Lionel Messi’s head. The triumph of a team that started losing against the Saudis and went on to get stronger in each match until suffering bravely against the French in the final. Deschamps’ team, which had not shot between the three posts for 80 minutes, recovered the grandeur with two goals from Kylian Mbappé in two minutes, only to end heartbroken on penalties after scoring a third. And a fourth in the penalty shootout. Without Mbappé, this France would not have come this far. Without Messi, the Argentines would not be champions. It was the end of the footballers, despite the very gallant role of the emir of Qatar and the president of France to be photographed at the trophy ceremony. Football, a game that excites, is a business that attracts vultures and politicians who do not think about sport. But the game belongs to players like Messi and Mbappé. As a summary of this World Cup, a fabulous sporting spectacle ended with the local Emir refusing to shake hands with the fourth referee of the match, as she was a woman.
Millions of Argentines, as they try to make ends meet and fight inflation, will be able to remember where they were when Messi beat France in extra time with a ball that looked like it wouldn’t go in. Or when they were when Montiel scored that last penalty. The video call with the parents, the hug with the grandmother, the kiss under a shower of colored papers. Football, despite everything, is still exciting because of everything that happens on the pitch. And the final was played as Messi and his friends wanted it. More than a team, this Argentina looks like a group of friends. A team that excites the Argentines. And also people from half the planet, half of Catalonia among them, who have made Messi one of their own, have put his photo as their wallpaper, in folders and on the walls as if he were another family member or a patron saint. Messi has distributed goals and joy for more than two decades, but he carried the cross of never having won a World Cup, an illogical competition if you like, since in seven games you throw away the work of four years.
For years, Messi seemed destined to fight with the shadow of Maradona, the hero of 1986. And in the first World Cup without Maradona, Argentina has dedicated the victory to him. As if it were a way of indicating that there is no need to compare or argue, when you can enjoy both stars. The photo of Messi with the cup, kissing it in an Arab robe that has been stuck to him on the podium, will be placed in the cafes of San Telmo and Boedo next to the one of Maradona in 1986. Every time Argentina wins, it inside the field of play to give joy to a people who suffer in the streets, in the queues of banks or airports, when it is time to leave home to go in search of a better life. The most stained and dirtiest World Cup in the offices has awarded a player who continues to play as if he were a child. Like in those videos on VHS where he didn’t lift a palm from the ground and was already teasing rivals in Rosario’s dirt fields.
The reason said that France, which was looking to be the third team capable of revalidating the title, was favourite. This mattered little to Argentina. Scaloni, a hero by accident, the coach who lives in Mallorca and had to lead the national team in two friendly matches and ended up staying in the position, has built a team that knows how to play, suffer and adapt to the scripts. Where veterans, like Messi, add allies in youngsters like Julián Álvarez or Enzo Fernández. And in fact, Scaloni has surprised right from the start by playing Ángel Di Maria on the left, a winning maneuver, since every attack by this striker who plays as if he were in a street in Rosario has mortified Ousmane Dembélé. The Barça player committed a penalty kick on Di Maria in the 23rd minute which allowed Messi to beat Lloris. Look he’s missed some key penalties in the past, but most importantly he hasn’t missed it. A few minutes later, Messi touched him gently, starting a counter where Di Maria made it 2-0. You must have something, Rosario, for two of your sons to score in the final.
Deschamps, seeing his selection turned into a broken toy, made a double change in the 40th minute of the first half. He took out Giroud, who had not touched the ball, and Dembélé, who looked like a fifth columnist working in favor of the Argentines. But Argentina was reading the game better. Mbappé did not even participate. The best way to disable the best players is to not get the ball to them. Argentina has done it with Mbappé. Messi, on the other hand, was everywhere, playing surrounded by players who understand him and offer themselves. Football, dynamic of the unthinkable, space where science and superstitions share the table, had reserved for Messi a novel ending to his career. A happy ending. In the first half, Di Maria was already crying with emotion after his goal. And France was walking aimlessly. But it was just the first act of a crazy finale.
French reaction
In the second half, Deschamps’ team tried to lift the game with Thuram, the son of the 1998 world champion, and Kolo Muani, a luxury supporting actor. Since nothing was happening, he ended up burning the ships by removing an unlucky Griezmann from the field and replacing Coman and Camavinga. It has worked for him. In almost the first Argentine defensive error, Otamendi took a penalty converted by Mbappé. And 60 seconds later, Coman passed the ball to Messi and allowed Mbappé to score the equalizer. Two historic, dramatic minutes, in which, suddenly, Mbappé regained the crown of king of football that was already being placed on Messi’s head. France, as if it were boxing, had Argentina on the ropes. Scaloni’s team survived as best they could until extra time, thinking of buying time to get back on their feet. Mbappé, who seems destined to reign when Messi is no longer there, has shaken the dream of the Argentines in a final match where he has shown his competitive gene.
But the dream of that boy from Rosario has come true now that he is a father of a family. The World Cup in Qatar, a tournament of extremes, will be remembered for the darkness outside the playing fields and the light of Messi inside. A goal in extra time by the ex-Blaugrana, catching a rejection from Lloris to make it 3-2, seemed to put the final point in the match, but with four minutes to go Montiel committed a foul, which allowed Mbappé to equalize and sign yours hat-trick.If Messi already had seven goals, Mbappé had eight. The French came back every time the Argentinian, defiant. The final had to be decided on penalties, since in the last play of the game the Back Martínez, the goalkeeper who left for Europe at the age of 17 to find a life, like so many compatriots, made a prodigious save at Kolo Muani. And in the penalties, making a stop to Coman that has begun to mean the end of the French. As in 2006, France has lost a World Cup on penalties. And the Argentines have touched the sky without missing a single penalty. The last, the work of Montiel, one of the team’s shyest players.
Once the ball hit the net, the Argentine party began. Messi’s party No one deserved it more than him. From Bangladesh to Naples, from Buenos Aires to Barcelona, millions of people have found themselves in front of a screen smiling to see Messi happy. The happiness he has shared for so many years is now his.
