I couldn’t help but watch him throughout that trophy presentation because he was barely there, so deep in his own despair. The tears were the kind that said the weight of this moment might be sinking in. That it might, finally, be all over. We don’t have confirmation that this will be his last World Cup, but frankly it would be something else entirely if he were to attempt to get up for 2030 at the age of 43. But hey, it felt as if 2022 would have been his last World Cup, and for most players it would have been the time to call it a day.
That’s a tough watch for Messi.AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough
He was 35 and had finally added a World Cup trophy to reverse the long-running narrative he would never live up to Diego Maradona. Instead he decided to go again. That decision allowed the world to see him produce the unthinkable once more in 2026. If not for Mbappe’s third-place playoff brace yesterday, he would be the all-time World Cup goalscorer. What Messi has done at this tournament defies all logic, but his quiet tears and that furrowed brow say he does not see it this way.
The gravity of Argentina’s final loss sinks in for Lionel Messi.AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough