CNN
—
Ever since he was a young boy growing up in Rosario, Lionel Messi’s ultimate dream was to win the World Cup for Argentina.
He finally made that dream come true on Sunday, in the final World Cup game of his career, after a month that featured some of the best individual moments fans have ever seen from the little magician.
Messi has never made a secret of his desire to win the World Cup for his native country and it’s a goal that has bordered on obsession for much of his life.
It was evident in Qatar as he dragged his team through the games with his willpower and a bit of magic.
While Messi previously said it would be his last World Cup, the 35-year-old told reporters after Sunday’s penalty shoot-out victory over France that he intended to play for Argentina again. a little.
“Obviously I wanted to end my career with this, I can’t ask for anything more,” Messi told Argentinian broadcaster TyC Sports. “Thank God he gave me everything. Almost ending my career this way is amazing.
“
After that, what else is there? I was able to win the Copa America, the World Cup… almost at the end. I like football, what I do. I like being with the national team, the group, I want to continue to live a few more matches being world champion.
“It’s crazy, we really wanted it but it’s the most beautiful thing there is. Look what it is, it’s beautiful. I wanted it so badly. God was going to give it to me… we suffered a lot but we We made it. I can’t wait to be back in Argentina to see how crazy it’s going to be.
“It’s the dream of all little children, I was lucky to have achieved everything and what I was missing is here.”
For much of his career, Messi had struggled to step out of the shadow of Diego Maradona, a man beloved in Argentina for both his greatness and his flaws and who ultimately brought home the glory of the European Cup. world in the country.
Now, Messi has answered all the questions posed by his detractors, according to Guillem Balague, football journalist and authorized biographer of Messi.
“That means the proceedings are over,” Ballague told CNN Sport. “The [Cristiano] The Ronaldo debate is over, the [Diego] The Maradona debate is over, the world’s best player of all time [debate] is finished. That’s what it means. Considering what he had done for 15 years, he was quite simply the best player in the world.
“Try to match the kind of consistency delivered at the top, the fact that he’s won so many leagues, so many Champions Leagues – Maradona hasn’t – but of course now you’re going to start every sentence with ‘The World Cup winner Leo Messi.’ “The end of all debate. It’s over. For his legacy, it’s sort of the end of an era.”
“It ends on a massive top from someone who delivered at the top. It’s sad – it’s not just that he’s leaving, find me another Messi. Find me another player who looks like him, who is small, small, not the fastest, but who can still manage to dominate the game and influence the game.
“That doesn’t happen anymore. Coaches just get little robots, they want them to do a good job and he [Messi] just rips the script every time. He did it in the World Cup final. Nothing bigger, right? »
