🐐—Second-most goals in history (21)
🐐—Most wins in history (23)
🐐—Longest scoring streak (9)
🐐—Oldest hat trick scorer (38)
🐐—Joint-most tournament appearances (6)
🐐—Argentina’s top scorer at World Cup
🐐—Most goals from outside the area (7)
🐐—Most World Cup appearances (34)
🐐—Most appearances as captain (27)
🐐—Most assists in knockout phase (10)
🐐—Only man to score in group stage, Ro16, quarterfinals, semifinals and final (2022)
🐐—World Cup winner 🏆
Lionel Messi says farewell to the 2026 World Cup 🥺
Lionel Messi, though. What a tournament. Dragged this Argentina team to heights they had no right to reach. Even at 39 himself, he extended the shelf life of what is a very old side. A sparkling, catalytic presence. Go well into the starry night's sky, Leo.
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With less BDor's, trophies, goals and zero world cup, Messi's footballing ability is still levels above everyone else. That would only have placed a question mark on his GOAT status.
But without those, no one has ever played football better than him.
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The best minutes per chance created ratio of players to create 10+ at the 2026 World Cup:
◉ 24.8 - Lionel Messi
◎ 25.2 - Maxi Araújo
◎ 26.8 - Mohamed Salah
◎ 27.2 - Désiré Doué
◎ 28.8 - James Rodríguez
◎ 28.9 - Rayan
Messi magic. 🪄
In January 1985, Diego Maradona defied Napoli's management to play a village charity match in Acerra, Italy, raising funds for a sick local child's life-saving surgery. Napoli's president opposed the match due to injury risks and banned its players from participating, but Maradona paid the insurance out of his own pocket. ❤
Lionel Messi is pure football.
He has spent the vast majority of his career tearing through teams with fury and ankles made out of rubber, burning paths through gaps not visible to the naked eye. As his youth waned and the effervescence left him, he then began to watch instead, a raptor perched on a branch with death in his eye, waiting for the glint of the sun off the pelt of a prey animal.
Now, at 39, he is no longer interested in gaps or quarry. If you, through incompetence or naivety, present either, he will go through it and gorge himself, but he no longer rages against your stubbornness. The old man simply finds a vantage point on the pitch where he can unfurl his mat, sits cross-legged like a Buddha, and hurts you from there in the most appropriate way. His mental map of the pitch comes complete with the full compendium of possibilities in every zone, and he is practised at selecting the right one every time.
God knew He didn't have to overdo things hence He didn't give these sorts of national teammates and coach to prime Messi.
Una for cry blood for every tournament.