- Lionel Messi cemented his status as soccer's best ever player by helping Argentina win the World Cup on Sunday.
- The 35-year-old scored twice as Argentina beat France on penalties after a 3-3 draw.
Lionel Messi cemented his status as the greatest soccer player of all time on Sunday as Argentina beat France on penalties after a thrilling 3-3 draw in the final of the World Cup in Qatar.
The 35-year-old, who announced prior to the final that the match would be his last ever for Argentina, opened the scoring on the night from the penalty spot in the 23rd minute.
Ángel Di Maria scored Argentina's second shortly after, finishing off a beautiful team move as Lionel Scaloni's side looked in cruise control.
But a late brace from Messi's Paris Saint-Germain teammate Kylian Mbappé sent the match into overtime.
Messi thought he'd found the winner for Argentina when he bundled the ball over the line with 10 minutes to play, however, Mbappé scored again from the spot to complete his hat-trick and send the game to penalties.
In the shootout, Messi then scored his spot kick before misses from Kingsley Coman and Aurélien Tchouaméni handed Argentina the title.
Prior to Sunday, Argentina last won the World Cup in 1986, when the late Diego Maradona was in the team.
Having lost in the final of the 2014 World Cup to Germany, doubts were surfacing that Messi would ever be able to replicate Maradona's feat and add himself to the pantheon of the game's greats to have lifted international soccer's greatest prize – especially after Argentina lost its first match in Qatar to Saudi Arabia.
However, since the defeat against Saudi Arabia, Argentina, led by Messi, excelled, beating Australia, the Netherlands, and Croatia en route to the final.
Messi scored in all three of those games and his brace in the final saw him become the only player in World Cup history to score goals in all of the last 16, quarterfinals, semifinals, and final.
For that astonishing feat, he was awarded the Player of the Tournament award, which he collected just moments before lifting the one title in world soccer that had until now eluded him.
As Messi lifted the World Cup trophy, draped in a golden Qatari robe like true sporting royalty, fireworks erupted from around Lusail Stadium and soccer's greatest ever player smiled from cheek to cheek.
No player in the history of soccer has ever matched the achievements of Messi.
During his 17-year spell with FC Barcelona, he scored an unprecedented 672 goals in just 778 matches, helping it win 10 La Liga titles and the UEFA Champions League four times.
Messi also won the Ballon d'Or, world soccer's most prestigious individual prize, six times during that period.
He won that title for a record extending seventh time in 2021 as a PSG player after he helped Argentina win the Copa América – the national team's first trophy since 1993.
Having now scooped the World Cup and completed his collection of soccer silverware, there is little doubt he will win the Ballon d'Or for an eighth time.