How 35-Year-Old Messi Led Argentina To First World Cup Title In 36 Years
On the evening of Saturday, December 17, 2022, a crowd of football lovers gather outside a quaint home in Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina chanting the name of Lionel Messi. From the dimly-lit one-story room, an old woman, simply identified as Olga or danced and clapped in response to the crowd outside. It was the eve of the historic world cup final taking place 13,000 kilometres away in Qatar.
The 79-year-old was well-known as Messi’s grandma. Except she was not his real grandma but a woman whose love for football and of course Messi was well-known. She also lived in the same town as Messi’s grandmother, Celia Olivera Cuccittini, a key motivator for Messi, who died in 1998 and this perhaps drew many Argentinian football lovers to her.
When Gonzalo Montial scored the winning penalty at Lusail Stadium in Lusail, Qatar after extra time, the Argentinian footballers rushed towards Lionel Messi to celebrate with him as he finally achieved his much-coveted trophy in style. After having played in four world cup tournaments and losing a final to Germany in 2014, it was a sweet victory for the 35-year-old footballer who announced a couple of days before the final game that it was his last outing at the FIFA World Cup.
Before today, Messi had practically won everything in world football: 7 Ballon d’Or awards, 4 UEFA champions league titles with Barcelona and multiple league titles as well as the Copa America trophy. But all of them paled in comparison to Messi’s desire to win the World Cup trophy.
His Argentinian colleagues knew how much the trophy meant to Messi who is arguably the greatest player in the world. Eight years ago in Brazil, he cried on the world stage when his team narrowly missed out on the trophy after losing by a goal in the final.
Messi’s Argentinian colleagues had been unequivocal in their declaration that theory wanted to win the tournament for their captain. Emiliano Martinez, their goalkeeper said he would be happier for Messi than for himself ahead of the final while Papu Gomez, their forward said the team was happy to win it for their talisman.
The dream looked derailed after their first match of the tournament after their shocking loss to Saudi Arabia but the team bounced back winning all their games all the way to the final.
The final game took a scary turn when Argentina’s two-goal lead in the first half was equalled by Frace in the second half forcing the game to extra time where Messi’s second-half goal in extra-time gave Argentina the victory.
Messi opened the scoring with a penalty in the 23rd minute after Angel Di Maria was brought down in the penalty box by French winger, Ousmane Dembele. Di Maria then turned scorer in the 36th minute after a well-worked team goal.
France however were not done. Messi’s PSG teammate, Kylan Mbappe scored from the penalty spot before netting another one 90 seconds later forcing the game to extra time.
Messi’s scored in the second half of extra time but Mbappe netted another goal from the penalty spot three minutes before the end of the game again forcing the game to a penalty shootout which Argentina ultimately won.
