F. Scott Fitzgerald once made the dare: “Show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy.” This was no tragedy. The night before the final, Lionel Messi posted on Instagram:
💬 “Whatever happens tomorrow, this group has already written a story we’ll never forget and that no one can erase.”
In 2021, Argentina won the Copa America for the first time in 28 years and then retained it. In 2022, they won the World Cup for the first time in 36 years and almost retained it.
Outside an event in New York in the lead-up to the final, Messi was told: “Your career is like a video game—you keep unlocking new levels until you reach the end.” He replied: “I already completed the game at the last World Cup in Qatar.”
Even if Kylian Mbappe clinched the Golden Boot in the third-place play-off against England and surpassed him as the World Cup’s all-time leading scorer, many of the other all-time records in this competition belong to Messi. As he walked down the tunnel, nostalgia for a vanishing world set in.
What will the World Cup be like without Messi? His sixth and likely last was mostly astonishing. When visas were revoked and red cards suspended he brought us back to football, delivering the World Cup from FIFA’s many sins.
Gianni Infantino can keep adding teams but one thing is for sure. A World Cup without Messi will always feel less than whole.
