Messi was the sum of all Messi to be the absolute player and fulfill the dream he was missing

The world – and football – is a little more right from this Sunday of glory. Lionel Messi He did it: after one of the most vibrant and anthological finals, he finally managed to lift the World Cup. The best of all has the title it was missing, the one he loved the most, the one that made him lose sleep the most. The release is now complete. Everything is in place of him.

“Come on Argentina, we are world champions, your mother’s f…!”he shouted when the microphone was brought to him in full celebration, in full delirium on the grass of a Lusail stadium in disbelief at what he had just seen. The whole planet was pushing for him and in Qatar 2022 he was given it. There are no more thorns. There are no more outstanding accounts. Happiness is unique. Yours, that of an entire country and that of the world.

He didn’t back down, Leo. When he went to collect the award for the best player of the competition (because he was undoubtedly the star of the Middle East), he passed the gold trophy in 18-karat gold and didn’t go far this time. She stopped, caressed him, gave him a kiss of pure love and smiled satisfied. It was the most awaited kiss, the one she had stifled for some time, the only one that wouldn’t have made Antonela jealous, her wife, who was crying with her children and the whole family in a box.

There were still a couple of formal steps to lift him, but she was stronger than him. It had already happened near him eight and a half years ago, in Brazil 2014; this time he was authorized to touch the Chalice of life, of dreams, of justice.

This Messi was the best Messi in this World Cup. He’s made it of her from the start. She went through it from top to bottom with pleasure. Even in the difficult moments, with that elusive start against Saudi Arabia in which he scored the first of his seven goals on Arab soil from a penalty, on the 10th he knew that this magical fairy tale could have the end he had longed for . He warned him, too: “Let People Trust”she said after losing at the premiere. I am not disappointed.

And it was its best version because here in Qatarat his fifth World Cup, Leo was the sum of all Messi. He was the Messi of Barcelona, ​​with sudden spurts and changes of pace that he made in his twenties. It was also Messi who scored the goal. Was the flea Who ran tirelessly in the pastures of Rosario when he was less than 12 years old and that no one could catch him because no one knew where he was going to shoot. Messi was the strategist and the assist, with impossible passes and plays like with Holland and Croatia. He was the main Messi, vigilante, fighter.

And to think that someone dared to ask “Where is Messi?” in the first days of this edition of the World Cup. One even questioned how he had physically arrived. That he had a swollen ankle. Whether he was afflicted with a contracture in the soleus … The man from Rosario had the task of covering those rumors with his most ingenious game in which he integrated everything: the explosion of his debuts with the experience of his 35 years .

He had to suffer before he could earn the right to touch golden glory in the form of Cup for the first time in his life. He had scored the 1-0 penalty. But the 10 Albiceleste had to lose a ball in the middle and from there came the 2-2 for France which ended with a punch in the back of the stomach. Everything had been done well by the Selection and by him up to that moment. It was 80 minutes of absolute supremacy.

It seemed that fate had been cruel in not letting him reach that peak for which he had cried so much in the past.

But, just like against the Dutch, he didn’t lower his head. Messi rebuilt himself in those minutes when Argentine hearts almost stopped beating. Because in the final he did what he has always preached in his masterful career of him: try again, no matter what.

Leo went to the front. He took two shots that the good Hugo Lloris held him back. Tired, with the regret of knowing that once again he had to get through a night that seemed resolved, the captain showed the integrity necessary to infect the rest.

He found the goal in extra time after rebounding after a shot by Lautaro Martínez. He yelled it, got excited and looked towards the stands with his fists raised. There was suspense about the Taurus position, but it was enabled.

It seemed that it already was. Which now yes, really, she already was. Hand. Football had more obstacles for him. Mbappé he was once again precise in another penalty (by the hand of Montiel) before finishing the 120. Once again, fate and his macabre games.

Leo took back the baton in the decisive series of penalties. He kicks confidently, from below and gently to the right of a Lloris who passes to the other side and is unable to catch up. The rest is history.

At the gates of the desert, on the edge of the Arabian peninsula, Messi has messed up. All the mess in the world. He is the Argentine with the most World Cups (5), the Argentine with the most goals at the World Cup (13), it is his year with the most goals in the national team (18) and he has become, as if all this were not enough , the player with the most games in Cup history (26) and also with more minutes (2,314). He broke every barrier.

After so many titles in their clubs (35 at Barcelona and 2 at Paris Saint-Germain). Of many frustrations in Argentina with the finals lost, which began to be overturned at the hands of Scaloni by obtaining the Copa América 2021 and the Finalissima. After seven Golden Balls and the fact that he was unusually included in this year’s nomination not even in the top 30 … After all, Lionel Messi was able to write the most glorious page about him.

The one that Mario Kempes and Diego Maradona had already written in their own hand, respectively in 1978 and 1986. The one you’ve dreamed of many times. Finally it was given. And there he is with his Thiago, Mateo and Ciro, sitting as in his home park, with the Cup in his hands. The cup of life. The cup of his life.

The Cup that won’t let go when they carry it on a stretcher in the Olympic round. Nor when she drives the train uncontrolled in the mixed area, barefoot and with the shirt that already shows the third star above the AFA shield. And she won’t release it on the entire trip back to the country, to share it with all Argentines.

The story had a chapter unfinished for him. Fate, stubborn as it was, yielded to his insistence. He wouldn’t stop until he figured it out.

For this Messi, the best of all time, glory is eternal.

Lusail, Qatar. Special delivery.