“Surely, Sunday will be my last game in a World Cup.”
On December 14, 2022, Lionel Messi declared to the world exactly when his journey in World Cups would end.
His side had just beaten Croatia 3-0 in the semifinal to book a place in the final – a fitting finale to the World Cup career of one of the greatest ever to lace up his boots.
Four days later, when Messi stepped onto the pitch in Lusail, the world looked on with anticipation, waiting to see what tricks the magician from Rosario would conjure up in his last dance at the grandest stage.
Their opponents were France, the defending champions, spearheaded by Kylian Mbappe, who was ready to take over the mantle of the world’s best player from Messi.
In one of the greatest ever showdowns in a World Cup final, the veteran Messi bested Mbappe, lifting the World Cup for the first time, fulfilling his destiny and finishing his story.
It was a fairytale ending, the conclusion to the greatest tale ever told on the football pitch.
Until Messi decided it wasn’t the end.
It’s 2026 now, the World Cup has returned to North America and is nearing its conclusion. And Messi is right in the thick of it all again, defending the title he had won with Argentina in Qatar.
At 39, the Argentine is jointly leading the goal-scorer’s chart with Mbappe, is just three wins away from outdoing his fairytale finish in 2022, and helping Argentina become the first team since Brazil in 1972 to win back-to-back World Cups.
His determination to succeed in this World Cup has been equal parts astonishing and inspiring. However, his presence in the 2026 edition, undermines what he had said in 2022, turning it into a false declaration, a lie.
Now, one false declaration is not enough to accuse someone of being prone to lying. But in Messi’s case, this is not a one-off.
“For me, the national team is over. I've done all I can. It hurts not to be a champion.”
On June 27, 2016, Messi thought he had reached the end of his road with the Albiceleste.
He had just lost his fourth final with Argentina –the Copa America Centenary edition’s final in New Jersey against Chile on penalties.
In the shootout, Messi took Argentina’s first penalty and missed, setting the tone of the 4-2 defeat.
It was a repeat of 2015, when Argentina lost the Copa America final to the same side, also on penalties.
And the year before, Germany handed a Argentina a crushing 1-0 defeat in extra time in the World Cup final.
For three years in a row, Messi came inches from clinching his maiden trophy for the senior side, only to be denied. The pain was too much to bear for Messi, who at the age 29, announced his retirement from international football.
“It’s very hard, but the decision is taken. Now I will not try more and there will be no going back,” he concluded.
His shock retirement stunned Argentine supporters, who flocked to the streets to urge him to reverse his decision. Less than two months after retiring, Messi unretired.
“I seriously thought about leaving, but my love for Argentina and this jersey forced me to return,” he said in a statement.
Thus began the second and most successful phase of his international career, which includes two Copa America titles, a Finalissima trophy, and the coup de grâce, a World Cup.
By winning the World Cup in 2022, Messi had completed football, something he acknowledged immediately after the final, when he looked up at his family in the stands and said ‘Ya esta’, which means “That’s it”.
“By ‘Ya esta’ to my family, I meant it's finally over after so much suffering,” he explained in a 2023 radio interview. “We won the Copa America, we won the World Cup, that's it. There's nothing left."
Yet Messi had one more desire. “I want to continue to live a few more games being a world champion,” he told the press after the final.
After finally becoming a world champion, Messi wanted to put on the shirt with three stars and play a few matches, in something of a farewell tour.
That tour has now carried on for four years, and has him three wins away from adding a fourth star to Argentina's jersey.
In this tournament, Messi has not played like a veteran on his way out but like a man fighting for his life. When Spain coach Luis de la Fuente recently said Messi is playing like a “19-year-old,” it wasn't hyperbole.
In the 82nd minute against Egypt, with Argentina trailing 2-1, Messi rolled back the clock for a moment, made a brilliant run down the right side, turning out his markers inside out to produce a precise cross for Lautaro Martinez, whose header went wide.
Just one minute later, he smashed a loose ball into the back of the net to put Argentina level before Enzo Fernandez scored the winner in stoppage time, setting up a quarterfinal against Switzerland on Sunday morning.
Messi broke down in tears at the final whistle. For a man who has already achieved everything, whose legacy as one of the game's all-time greats, if not the greatest, is already sealed, why does he care so much?
The answer, perhaps, lies in another lie – one he told himself long ago.
“Even if I played for a million years, I’d never come close to Maradona. Not that I’d want to anyway. He’s the greatest there’s ever been.”
In 2010, for the last time in his career, Messi headed into a World Cup where he wasn’t the biggest star in the Argentina team. That honour was reserved for their manager Diego Maradona.
Touted as the “next Maradona,” Messi, unsurprisingly, was often asked about the comparisons in the buildup to that World Cup. And invariably, he would always concede to Maradona's greatness.
Sixteen years on, Messi has surpassed Maradona in almost every metric – more goals, more assists, more European trophies, more individual awards, and a Copa America win Maradona never managed.
The only metric where they remain level is World Cup titles. Maradona inspired Argentina to glory in 1986, and came close to a repeat in 1990, before losing 1-0 to Germany in the final.
In 2026, Messi has the chance to do what Maradona couldn't – win back-to-back World Cups for Argentina, and end the debate for good.
What Messi had said in 2010, was perhaps the honest admission of a youngster awestruck by the presence of his idol.
The Maradona comparisons chased him all his career, till the 2022 World Cup win, no matter what he achieved, it was not enough to come out of Maradona’s shadow.
In 2026, Messi has the chance to eclipse him, and finally prove that his 2010 statement, like his retirement and World Cup goodbye, were never quite the truth.