Lionel Messi now sits at the table of world champions alongside Pelé and Diego Maradona: the '10' guided Argentina to the hard-fought conquest of their third World Cup title this Sunday in Doha, where they defeated defending champion France in penalties (4-2, after a 3-3 draw).
At the age of 35, the Argentine star can bid farewell peacefully to his World Cup journeys (he participated in the last five): he scored the first goal, from a penalty (23), and the third goal (in extra time, 109) at the crowded Lusail stadium and participated in the second goal, by Ángel Di María (36).
Although the crown breaks a 36-year albiceleste drought without lifting the World Cup, it has been done before with Mario Kempes in 1978 and Diego Maradona in 1986, this conquest has a special protagonist, a guy who saw how Germany snatched it from his nose in Brazil-2014.
With Di María and Messi as the only survivors of the debacle in the Maracaná, the group formed by Lionel Scaloni knew how to close ranks around the player that thousands consider the greatest player in history, a title resisted by many precisely because he did not have in his hands what he lifted this Sunday before 88,966 spectators.
And he did it against France, one of his potential heirs and teammate at PSG, Kylian Mbappé, who took the match to penalties by scoring a hat-trick (80, 81, and 118, two of them from penalties) and finishing as the top scorer of the tournament with eight goals.