20 World Cup goals. First player in FIFA World Cup history to score in 8 consecutive appearances. Six KO stage goals.
The one and only, Lionel Andrés Messi 🐐
Zlatan Ibrahimović on Lionel Messi missing a penalty and then scoring a stunning banger minutes later against Austria:
🗣️ “First he misses a penalty… most players disappear after that. Most players hide, most players think too much, most players feel the pressure. But Messi is not most players.”
“I was watching the moment he stepped up, and I thought okay, even the best can fail. But what happens next is what separates ordinary from legendary.”
“He doesn’t argue, he doesn’t panic, he doesn’t look for excuses. He just waits… and then he responds in the only language football understands.”
“Minutes later, he gets the ball again outside the box. One touch, no hesitation, and then boom… a goal that looks like it was drawn by football itself. That is not recovery that is domination.”
“What people don’t understand is that missing a penalty can destroy a game mentally. But for him, it feels like it wakes something up. Like he needed the mistake to unlock something bigger.”
“I’ve seen many players try to bounce back after pressure moments. But what he did is not bouncing back… it’s flipping the whole story of the match.”
“A penalty miss becomes a highlight… and then the highlight becomes forgotten because the next goal is even better. That is not normal football.”
“This is why I always say there are players who play the game, and then there are players who rewrite it while it is still happening.”
“And Messi… he doesn’t just answer pressure. He humiliates it.
All the records broken by Lionel Messi today:
Most FIFA World Cup finals goals by a football (soccer) player - 18
Most FIFA World Cup matches played in by an individual - 28
Most matches won by a player at the football (soccer) FIFA World Cup - 18
Most minutes played in the football (soccer) FIFA World Cup - 2,489
We are witnessing history.
❤️🥺 A heartbreaking video shared by FIFA of Guillermo Ochoa explaining his decision of retiring from football after the World Cup.
“Without the national team, I don’t see much more meaning in football.
I don’t see the point in keeping on playing”.