Messi finally wins FIFA World Cup and can claim to be greatest footballer of all time

Opinion - The 2022 FIFA World Cup just became a coronation. Football almost never delivers perfect narratives, so when it happens it's all the more impactful.

And so it was at Lusail Stadium today, as the greatest player the game has known won its ultimate trophy in dramatic fashion.

Lionel Messi, at 35, has finally won the World Cup with Argentina, leading his national side to an epic victory over the 2018 champions France, with a penalty shootout required to decide the winner after a 3-3 draw.

And we can, more comfortably now, crown him the finest men's footballer of all time.

It was only fitting that he won the World Cup with Argentina, leading his national side to an epic victory over the 2018 champions France, with a penalty shootout required to decide the winner after a 3-3 draw.

And we can, more comfortably now, crown him the finest men's footballer of all time.

It was only fitting that Messi's heir apparent, Kylian Mbappe, surged towards the end of this game, scoring three goals in a losing side.

Messi had been the best player in the tournament but was fading towards the end of the final. It seems destiny got in the way to deliver him the ultimate prize.

The only asterisk that hovered over his legacy was a failure to win the biggest prize in the sport - the World Cup Trophy. That failure is now a gleaming success story.

Final stamp of greatness a long time coming

By five years into his professional career, it was obvious Messi was dancing alongside the gods - the Maradonas and the Pelés.

But while those two in particular earned their legacies early with World Cup wins (relatively young for Maradona at 25, extremely young for Pelé at 17), then spent the rest of their careers defending their reputations, Messi has almost been the opposite.

As the best player at perhaps the best club side the world has seen in Barcelona, he racked up goals, assists, trophies and personal plaudits.

To list his most astonishing statistics, he has nearly 800 career goals, 41 trophies and an unmatched seven Ballon d'Ors.

And it was the way he did it as well. For a player who has never shown excessive flair, he has been irresistible to watch.

Never once in his career has he performed an unnecessary step-over or backheel, yet he is an endless highlights reel of dazzling dribbles, sumptuous passes and ridiculous goals.

Despite being unrelentingly effective, he's never been dull to watch. Quite the opposite of a robotic winning machine, he's the player most likely to make you gasp in disbelief, or laugh out loud.

While Maradona was often likened to a god, and Pelé to a king, Messi sometimes makes us think he is an alien, something otherworldly. Like he's playing a different game to everyone else.

The World Cup a final flourish

There is a strong case that he didn't need to win the World Cup to be regarded as the greatest. International football is incredibly fickle.

What if France had won the shootout instead? What if Pelé had been born in Estonia and never won a trophy with his national side? Would that make him any less of a player?

Some of football's most legendary names never enjoyed success with their national teams; Alfredo Di Stéfano, Johan Cruyff and George Best to name three.

Messi has maintained a level of sustained brilliance, over years and years, that exceeds all of them.

Respected Argentinian sports journalist Juan Pablo Varsky once said: "Messi is like the very best of Maradona, every single day."

But there would always be some, when it comes to discussing the best ever, who would point to the empty space in Messi's trophy cabinet as a reason he cannot be put at the very top.

Not anymore.

The slow emergence of a talisman

Ironically, it was the Argentinians themselves who took the longest to acknowledge Messi's greatness.

Normally a young Argentinian talent would emerge onto the local football scene to much excitement, then star for a year or two with Boca Juniors or River Plate before the move to one of Europe's cashed-up leagues.

In that time he would have built himself a lifelong fanbase. Somewhere in the region of 90 per cent of Argentinians say they support Boca or River.

Though he was a product of the Newell's Old Boys junior academy in his hometown of Rosario, Messi moved with his family to Barcelona Futbol Club at the age of 13 - with the Spanish giant the only team willing to pay for the "expensive" hormone therapy he needed to grow to a normal size.

So the majority of Argentinians had never heard of Messi until, as a teenager, he started reeling off stunning performances for Barcelona in the Spanish league.

Despite more often that not being the best player on the field when Argentina played, he came under fire back home for not reaching the same heights as he did with his club.

Did he not care as much about the national team? Was he more Spanish than Argentinian?

Messi's shy, reserved personality didn't help - especially when compared to the chest-beating patriot Maradona.

Messi doesn't sing the anthem, they said.

He was a "pecho frio" - cold hearted - one of the worst insults you can call a player in Argentinian football.

While younger Argentinians took to Messi quickly - how could the Youtube generation resist his charms? - those who remembered Maradona at his finest took longer to win over.

Gradually, they came around, as Messi continued to produce for season after season for club and country.

The nation cried with him when he lost the 2014 World Cup final against Germany.

He shed more tears as Argentina lost two Copa America finals in as many years.

Messi as the 'white knight'

Argentinians no longer questioned his commitment to the cause, now they surged behind him in his quest to deliver a first international trophy for the country in decades.

Eventually that came, in the toughest of circumstances, as Argentina beat Brazil, in Brazil, in the 2021 Copa America final.

With Lionel Scaloni as coach, the team had finally worked out how to play for Messi, rather than expecting him to carry the rest of the team.

Messi finally looked happy playing for Argentina, and he finally looked like the leader the nation expected him to be.

As the team had grown around him, he too had grown comfortable as its talisman.

And Argentinians love a talisman, a messiah. From the days of the caudillos - the feudal strongmen who ruled over provinces - to charismatic cult figures like Juan Perón and even Maradona, the lure of the "white knight" who will lead people to glory has always been magnetic in Argentina.

Now that messiah is well and truly Messi, who grew even more into the role throughout this World Cup.

He was not just sublime, winning the games against Mexico, Poland, Australia, the Netherlands and Croatia with his mesmeric dribbles, scintillating goals and unbelievable assists, he was also feisty, outspoken and confident.

Messi is our greatest

Whether Argentina had won the final or not, it was a fitting end to Messi's international career that he graced a World Cup with his very best football. His very best football is unmatched, perhaps ever.

Messi can and will be proclaimed the best of all time in the wake of this tournament, but that's not to say the debate will cease.

There will be some reading these words right now grumbling about how Maradona did more with less, in tougher circumstances.

Even when Maradona was in his pomp there were some who said Michel Platini was better. Or old timers who insisted the Argentinian was nothing compared to Pelé.

In Pelé's time, some said he had none of the magic of Garrincha.

In 10 years, Mbappe might have done enough to convince some he has eclipsed old Lionel from '22. Fifteen years later there might be someone else bearing down on Messi's records.

The point is, for us, for our generation, we have a player we can easily and forcibly argue is the best who ever existed.

Embrace this moment, embrace Messi, and get ready to argue with your grandkids about how he was the greatest there ever was.

-ABC