Lionel Messi is Still the Greatest Show On Earth

Last year, when Lionel Messi was asked about his participation in the 2026 World Cup he demurred: “Because of my age, the most logical thing is I won’t make it.” The greatest player of all time had, it seemed, capped off his career in international football with Argentina’s 3-0 qualifying win over Venezuela. It simultaneously lowered the expectations of those who hoped to see him suit up for one final Copa Mundial and also delivered a memeable quote for the ages (Messi was suddenly in cahoots with aging millennials with early bedtimes). But after booking a return trip to the World Cup Final this week, Messi has made us all feel foolish for ever deigning to imagine La Selección without him.Messi really doesn’t need to be here. After finally winning his first World Cup in 2022, what better global send-off could there have been for the greatest footballer to ever live? Everything else—the trophies he’s bagged on his MLS run with Inter Miami; the Copa America win in 2024, in which he went down with a gnarly injury—was postscript, bonus, stoppage time. Anything could happen, but the clock was running out.So when Messi was announced for Argentina’s World Cup roster in late May—just days after another injury scare—the expectations had been appropriately calibrated. He stayed on the bench for a pre-tournament friendly against Honduras and scored a penalty kick in a second one against Iceland. This World Cup was supposed to be dessert, a pleasurable way to send off the GOAT without the substance of his previous runs. Any fan of the game would give anything to watch Lionel Messi get subbed onto the World Cup pitch in stoppage time, just to wave to the crowd in an Argentina kit one last time. But what we’ve seen in this tournament hasn’t felt like a retirement tour.During the run of this tournament, Messi turned 39, an age considered long past the athletic prime for most elite players. Even LeBron James, another of Father Time’s greatest adversaries at 41, settled into third in the pecking order during his final season with the Los Angeles Lakers. Unlike James, Messi is still the fulcrum for the Argentinian side playing in this Sunday’s Final. In this tournament, he’s gotten the ball past the keeper or provided a key assist to one of his teammates at least once in every match he’s played.In the tournament opener he bagged his first career World Cup hat trick with three spectacular goals against Algeria and sunk two more into the net in their second match against Austria. Heading into Sunday’s final he’s scored eight goals through the tournament, tied for the most of any player with Kylian Mbappé. But even impressive statistics don’t fully convey the sense of calm that La Albiceleste plays with when he’s on the pitch and the way teammates like Enzo Fernández and Rodrigo De Paul seem like they would die for Messi if that’s what the game required (which, thankfully, it doesn’t). And unlike fellow competitors with their careers staking on the outcome of the 2026 tournament, Messi is playing unburdened by expectation.Throughout the tournament, each game Messi has played in has hinged on him for both sides on the pitch. When it’s game-winning time, the Argentinian offense reduces down to get the ball to Messi and let him make magic. This is even more apparent in the way he uses his immense gravity to manipulate multiple defenders at once who react like a school of fish to a shark. Take the first goal against England, the laser from Enzo Fernandez. Messi danced on the right wing long enough and set off the Jaws score in three separate defenders’ heads when he approached the box to free up the space for his teammate to launch the ball into the back of the net. Unlike other favorites of past and present—like Cristiano Ronaldo or Erling Haaland—he is not reliant on set kicks or set-ups to create goals, nor is he a selfish stat-padder. Messi is both conductor and player in the orchestra.So much of Messi’s career has hinged on the impossible. He kicks a ball into a net by way of an arc of movement that seems inexplicable beyond divine intervention. He returned to the World Cup stage at 39 years old to say goodbye only to become the center of global football once more, as though there’s any other place he could exist on this stage. So often it seems football itself, not the ball but the the game bends towards Messi. What begins with him—a ball, a match, a team, a tournament—ends in glory.It is impossible for me–and most football fans–to imagine a world in which Messi is not playing the sport. The thought of his retirement has long conjured in my mind the efforts by marine biologists, futilely trying to keep great white sharks, who are hard-wired to hunt so can’t be fed and can’t breathe at a standstill, alive in captivity. Messi cannot play football forever. Still, what we’re seeing right now is as impressive as anything he has accomplished over his entire career. One way or another, Messi’s World Cup career comes to a close this weekend. Someday after that, Messi will have to stand still. But this Sunday, for at least 90 more minutes, the greatest football player of all time will remain in motion.