LUSAIL, Qatar — Kylian Mbappe had converted France’s first penalty in the shootout, the fourth time he’d beaten Argentina keeper Emi Martinez in the World Cup final, following his earlier hat-trick. And so Lionel Messi walked up to take Argentina’s opening penalty.
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Conventional wisdom suggests you generally want your best penalty takers to go last or, at least, when facing elimination. But there was nothing conventional or wise about this final or, come to think of it, this World Cup.
Messi stood for a moment, hands on hips, took his run-up, sent France keeper Hugo Lloris one way and the ball the other way. It was 1-1, and it was now out of his hands. And maybe, there was something hugely liberating to that. There was nothing further he could do to help Argentina win this World Cup and, in the eyes of some, cement his G.O.A.T. candidacy with the biggest prize in team sports. Nothing except cheerlead and be a supportive captain, which he did, greeting each Argentina penalty taker with a hug and a high-five.
Argentina would become champions a few minutes later, when Gonzalo Montiel converted his penalty kick to make it 4-2 and give them an unassailable lead. But it was that moment earlier, after Messi’s spot-kick that the realization must have hit him: “I can’t do any more.” In some ways, it speaks to what had, until one Sunday night in Qatar (a day we’ll have to explain to our grandchildren), had dogged him in his record-breaking career: his failure to win a World Cup.
In a team game, it’s an arbitrary measurement, and in this sport, it’s especially silly. You only get four or five cracks at it, if you’re lucky; you’re often too young for your first opportunity and too old for your last. There’s no guarantee you’ll be fit when the moment rolls around, and unlike in club football, you can’t control your supporting cast because you can’t pick your nationality. Alfredo Di Stefano never won a World Cup. Nor did Johan Cruyff. Nor has Cristiano Ronaldo.
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This is not what determines his status among the G.O.A.T. group or even as the G.O.A.T. outright. But it definitively banishes an undeserved cloud that had been hanging over him for many years.
