On this day 365 days ago, the cameras with millions back home gazed at Lionel Messi. This was supposed to be his night, wasn’t it? The night he completed football and close every chapter. The fulfillment of a career that had until then possessed every trophy – team and individual – except one.
But in the 81st minute, the smile on Messi’s face was one of embracing the harsh reality. Was this to be another 2014? After all the dazzling showmanship he’d put up on the pitch for the entirety of the tournament, was it all going to end in vain?
Had the World Cup just been snatched away from his grasp, again? Was this another harsh reality check of sports not giving two hoots about a happy ending? A few yards from him, the French players were wheeling away in celebration.
Kylian Mbappe had equalized for France after Argentina had dominated the entirety of the final starting from the first half.
Two of the biggest names of the modern game came head-to-head on football’s biggest stage, when France met Argentina at the 2022 FIFA World Cup Final.
Lionel Messi started the game as his country’s most capped and highest scoring player in history, while an 11-year junior Kylian Mbappé went into the match with a World Cup Final goal and trophy already under his belt.
Both players hit the back of the net multiple times, creating one of the most dramatic matches in the tournament’s history.
Mbappé’s 118th minute penalty not only took Argentina to a penalty shoot-out, but made him the second player in history to net a World Cup Final hat-trick.
At the end of the day, while Mbappé stood out from the crowd with his eight goals and golden boot award, it was finally Messi’s turn to lift the iconic trophy into the air on behalf of his country.
With seven goals and three assists, he’d led the way in a campaign that was dealt a blow in the opening game itself.
A defeat to Saudi Arabia that had left the Argentineans ‘dead’, in Messi’s precise assessment. It was he who’d bring them to life. Against Mexico with his peach of a strike from outside the box.
Against Australia with a low-precisional strike inside a congested box off a run the Aussies couldn’t mark. Against the Dutch, fashioning a stab no-look pass between two legs and beyond three defenders.
Against Croatia with a new assist of the tournament, one that saw him outrun and outsmart the best centre-back of the tournament, 15 years younger to him, from near the halfway line all the way to the six-yard box.
