Lionel Messi's 2022 World Cup: Argentina's superstar is having the best international tournament of his career

At the age of 35, Lionel Messi has been arguably the best player at the 2022 World Cup in what will probably be his last. The Argentina superstar has carried over his sensational form at Paris Saint-Germain onto the international stage with 17 goals and 16 assists so far this season for club and country, an astonishing accomplishment before the middle of December. Now he's looking to put a bow on his career with the biggest trophy of all and is just two wins away. 

He's tied for the second-most goals at the World Cup with four and has scored in both knockout stage games for the Albiceleste, beating Australia and the Netherlands to set up Tuesday's semifinal showdown with Croatia at 2 p.m. ET. 

Arguably the greatest player ever, his entire career has led to this moment. This is a guy who has scored 706 carer club goals and has 111 on the international level, 95 of which were with the Argentina senior team and the others with youth national teams. He's won nearly 40 career trophies, four of which being the all-important Champions League, and a record seven Ballon d'Or, given to the world's best players. He's won everything you can win ... except a World Cup. And he's been as as close as possible to that, losing in the final to Germany in 2014. 

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While the international pressure has always been on him, and with failure after failure, the free-flowing superstar feels like he is in a looser mindset than ever before in terms of feeling the weight of the country on his shoulder. Whether that is a product of having won the Copa America last year to claim his first major title with his country is unknown, but this version of Messi, one that does not take the slightest amount of disrespect and celebrates each moment with his national team as if it were his last, has resulted in a player who is playing like there is nothing to lose and purely living in the moment. 

It has resulted in some pretty incredible moments so far in this World Cup, with Messi delivering on three different fronts.

Goals

Messi has delivered in big spots so far in the tournament. After scoring in the opening 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia, he scored the winner against Mexico and then looked fantastic in the win over Poland to top Group C. 

He went on to score a delightful goal in the 2-1 win over Australia in the round of 16, and then he had his best performance of the tournament as they saw off the Netherlands in the quarterfinals.

Against the Dutch, a 2-2 draw that went to penalty kicks after the South Americans blew a 2-0 lead, Messi had six shots, scored the second goal on the penalty kick and produced one of the best assists you'll ever see. 

Assists

He's always been a distributor too, and it's what sets him apart from a player such as Cristiano Ronaldo. Messi had produced two assists in four games, just one shy of the tournament lead currently occupied by Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Bruno Fernandes.

But nobody has produced an assist like we saw Messi pull off against the Dutch to find Nahuel Molina for the opener. After getting into space in the attacking third, it was Messi's no-look pass to split the defense that will go down as one of the defining moments in his career at the World Cup. Take a look:

Toughness

Messi has never lacked toughness, but maybe he doesn't always show it. Sure, there have been moments, like when he grabbed the throat of Roma's Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa or the red card for the scuffle with Chile's Gary Medel in the 2019 Copa America. But this Messi just feels different. Be it what he did during the game to confronting Dutch coach Louis van Gaal after the match for his pre-game words being critical of Argentina, Messi is in no mood to take any form of disrespect, saying after the match that van Gaal didn't show his team respect when breaking down Argentina as a team. 

This led to Messi putting his hands up to his ears while starring right at the Dutch bench after making it 2-0.

After the match, as tensions rose, Messi specifically asked Wout Weghorst ahead of an interview, "What are you looking at, dummy?"

I'm not sure what has gotten into him, but I'm all for it. He's not taking any kind of [expletive], he's demanding respect and earning it, and when he doesn't get it, he fires back. 

So far, a mad Messi has been a dangerous one. If that anger continues, it will surprise know one if it inspires his team to the ultimate glory.