Tears streaming, Messi departs the World Cup stage a legend

Lionel Messi had so desperately hoped his World Cup would end differently.Tears running down his cheeks, a silver medal around his neck, his teammates in various states of depression, strewn around him like the detritus of some cataclysmic event as Spain roared amid garish golden confetti and an explosion of colour and joy.Arguably the greatest player to ever grace a pitch was distraught.It's impossible to know exactly what was going through his mind.A decade earlier, on the same Metlife Stadium pitch where he was currently sobbing, Messi had tearfully decided to retire from international football after losing the Copa América final against enormous underdogs Chile.The pain of that defeat was simply too much to bear for Messi, saddled with the expectation of a nation desperate to anoint him as Maradona's heir.The world was the beneficiary as Messi reversed that decision.Fans around the world have rejoiced at Messi's success. (Getty Images: Wang HE)So too were Argentina, who claimed the 2021 Copa América title, the 2022 Finalissima and, most tellingly, the 2022 World Cup under Messi's leadership, cementing his legacy among his fellow countrymen for all time.But once again in the New Jersey sunshine, Messi's tears were the defining feature for a generation of football fans.Was this another tearful goodbye to the international stage?Messi is 39 years old. With 19-year-olds Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsí on the other side of the divide and winning for Spain, the next generation is not just arriving to force him out but has already arrived.To play another World Cup in four years may be beyond even his mystic powers, even despite his impressive ability to adapt to the constraints his age has imposed on him.The next generation, personified by Lamine Yamal, is snapping at Messi's aging heels. (Getty Images: PA Images/Bradley Collyer)At this World Cup, Messi has walked for roughly half the time he was on the pitch, strolling and stalking for about 5 kilometres per game.And yet, inarguably, no one player has had a greater role in his team's success than Messi has for Argentina.His goals, eight of them, and his four assists dragged the defending champions through the group stage and the knockout rounds.His ability to bend a game to his will, no matter the situation, made him seem nothing short of inevitable.Despite all the walking, whenever Argentina threatened, the little magician was there in the heart of the action, conjuring and scheming and dragging his team home just when they needed him to.His very presence seemed to inspire his teammates to feats beyond their capabilities, a totemic figure to rally around, his energy imbuing those around him with positivity and confidence and class.Lionel Messi came close to lifting the World Cup for the second time. (Getty Images: FIFA/Tullio Puglia)Against England in the semifinal, his two assists powered the Albiceleste to a famous victory in stoppage time.Against Egypt, as his team faced elimination at 2-0 down, he provided the cross for the first and delivered the shot for their equaliser.Against Spain in the final? It just didn't happen.The fact that his tears only came after he had been given his silver medal was almost illustrative: No matter how late it got, Messi perhaps still had hope that he might somehow manage to influence the game in his favour.He'd done it before, after all.Only when Donald Trump laid the heavy silver slice of defeat around his neck did he realise there would be no more magic, that no amount of sorcery from his phenomenal feet could change history now.Against Spain, the little master managed just 55 touches, none of which came in the Spain penalty area.Lionel Messi was unable to stamp his authority on the contest. (Getty Images: FIFA/Maja Hitij)He was stifled as effectively as if Spain wrapped him in a blanket.And his Argentina teammates simply couldn't back up their superstar when it mattered most.Messi could not deliver the magical moment that his nation demanded.It was telling that Argentina offered so little other than niggly fouls and angry words as opposed to the free-flowing football Spain occasionally managed when the mood took them.Let's not beat around the bush: Argentina were woeful in this final.Argentina didn't have a single shot on goal in the first 90 minutes of the game, the first time any team has failed to do so in a World Cup final.Their first attempt on goal did not come until the 26th minute of extra time.Lionel Messi had Argentina's first shot of the game, in the second half of extra time. (Getty Images: FIFA/Maja Hitij)Their 25 total fouls resulted in seven yellow cards, one of which was a second that saw Enzo Fernández up-end Pau Cubarsí, making him the sixth player ever to be dismissed in a World Cup final.Argentina's nefarious skulduggery was finally, belatedly, penalised by a referee brave enough not to stand for it.Coach Lionel Scaloni said afterwards that his team "showed that we know how to lose" in his post-match press conference, but nothing could be further from the truth.The Argentines thoroughly disgraced themselves after the game's conclusion, Leandro Paredes lashing out and sparking a minor brawl that ended with him shown a red card after the final whistle.Fractious barely covers it.If this is to be his international swan song, the landscape post-Messi may as well be post-apocalyptic, so absent of joy and light does it appear to hold.Claudio Tapia, the president of the Argentina Football Association, knows how important Messi is to the team. (Getty Images: Andrew Harnik)It was not Messi's fault that he could not have the impact on the game he might have hoped for.Spain were able to successfully nullify a far better team than Argentina in the semifinal with their Rodri-led midfield dominance suffocating their opponents' creativity. Messi simply didn't have the space.He was closed down as ominously and relentlessly as the ticking of the clock that will one day herald the end of his stellar career.Messi couldn't muster the magic to help Argentina become the third men's team to win back-to-back World Cups.It is not the finale that Messi might have envisaged.But if this is to be his tearful sign off, fans will still look back at having been blessed by one of football's greatest of all time.