World Cup: Lionel Messi must find a way to lead Argentina across the finish line and become World Champion

By 1987, Paul Newman, a major film star and accomplished racing driver, had been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor six times, losing every time. He then heard he was shortlisted again for reprising his role as billiards player Fast Eddie Felson in The Color of Money.

“It’s like chasing after a beautiful woman for 80 years,” Newman famously said. “Finally she gives in and you say, ‘I’m terribly sorry, I’m tired’.”

Newman won the Oscar on the seventh try that year, but he didn’t show up to pick it up. He had been nominated for better performances in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Hud, and Cool Hand Luke, but the award never reached him.

The Color of Money was not his best work. He was past his prime, but the stars aligned and he got the statuette his artwork so richly deserved.

Lionel Messi will take to the stage on Sunday in search of a prize that has long eluded him

Sports also raise epic quests. Some have happy endings, some don’t. Stanley Matthews eventually won the FA Cup with Blackpool in 1953 at the age of 38, but Ken Rosewall, a tennis player described in one newspaper account as “a brilliant exponent of the fading age of elegance”, made it to the final of four Wimbledon men’s singles – the first in 1954, the last in 1974 – he never won the Grand Slam he had longed for the most.

On Sunday, at the Lusail Stadium in Doha’s northern suburbs, as the city contemplates giving way to the desert, another great odyssey comes to an end, a quest that will define the sporting element of this most contentious of World Cups when Lionel Messi, the greatest footballer in the world for the last two decades, trying to win the one prize that eluded him.

It all boils down to this – one man’s quest for the greatest prize of all. One man’s search for peace in a life of noise, fame, scrutiny, and unforgiving expectations.

A man’s desire for the love of his homeland. A man’s attempt to impose his genius on the mortals around him one last time, on a final stage, when it matters most.

There will be other actors on stage too, but nobody can steal a scene like Messi

There will be other actors on stage too, but nobody can steal a scene like Messi. This is his chance to erase the final question mark. That’s what the big ones do.

Imagine Tom Brady without a Super Bowl ring, Michael Jordan without an NBA title, Wayne Gretzky without a Stanley Cup, Serena Williams without a US Open title, or Virat Kohli without a Cricket World Cup. It’s unimaginable. Even in team sports, the greatest find a way to victory.

Here’s how Jordan justified his controlling, aggressive, and unforgiving behavior when discussing his career on The Last Dance. This is Messi’s last dance. He is now 35.

It is believed he will join Inter Miami in Major League Soccer next year, where his career will end. This is his fifth World Championship and unlikely to compete in another. He has to find a way to win.

Diego Maradona (left) and Pele (right) got their hands on the famous trophy in their careers

Many will argue his legacy will remain untouched if Argentina fail to defeat their opponents France in Sunday’s Lusail. His status as the greatest player of this generation was underscored by his performances at the tournament and some will still argue that he is the greatest of all time, whether he lifts the trophy or not. Others will have different opinions.

What Messi is playing for on Sunday is the right to rise alongside Pelé and Diego Maradona in the pantheon of the game’s most outstanding players.

Of course, Pele won the World Cup three times with Brazil and embodied the beauty of the sport. Maradona lifted a good but not great Argentine team to the top in 1986 and even now Messi is struggling to escape his shadow.

He’s been to the finals before, in 2014, when the stage seemed set for him to fulfill his destiny. But he had a bad game against Germany and missed a good chance early in the second half before Argentina lost 1-0 in extra time.

By the time Argentina won the Copa America last year, all of Messi’s triumphs had come with Barcelona, ​​another reason why Maradona still ranks above him at home.

Messi not winning the World Cup would be like Michael Jordan (above) without an NBA title

Messi played beautiful football in Qatar. He has scored five goals and the running and dribbling as he fended off Croatia’s highly regarded young defender Josko Gvardiol to set up Argentina’s third goal for Julian Alvarez in the semis has been the pivotal moment of the tournament so far.

It was Messi at his most dazzling, bewitching, beautiful. It was one for his highlight role and that’s a crowded room.

He has to earn the big prize the hard way on Sunday. If he doesn’t show up, like he did in Brazil eight years ago, Argentina are likely to lose. This is a 50-50 match. Even the bookmakers cannot separate the two sides.

Argentina have Messi but France are the better team. They have a roster of more talented players and in Kylian Mbappe they have the player many have anointed as Messi’s heir.

Messi played beautiful football in Qatar and held off Josko Gvardiol in the last round

Mbappe, Messi’s Paris Saint-Germain team-mate and also on Qatar’s payroll, was a sight to behold.

His speed is breathtaking – his race with Kyle Walker in France’s quarter-final win over England was another memorable moment – and his quick perception in tight spaces and awareness of the movements of others can unlock the best defence. If France wins, he will have two World Cups by the age of 23.

Mbappe has other artists around him. Most notably, he has Antoine Griezmann, who many consider the best player of the tournament.

“He just drifts off,” said his former Atletico Madrid team-mate Kieran Trippier 10 days ago at the England training camp, and Griezmann, in a new, elusive, deeper role, has been the catalyst for many of France’s best passages.

Messi has Alvarez, the young Manchester City forward, who runs a lot for him and also scores goals. And he has a snarling midfield Praetorian Guard of Rodrigo de Paul and Leandro Paredes aggressively protecting him from the predatory intentions of opposing defenders.

In Antonine Griezmann, who shone in the World Cup, Mbappe has other artists around her

Messi’s duel with Real Madrid defensive midfielder and another standout player of the tournament, Aurelien Tchouameni, will be one of the keys to the final.

The beauty of Messi’s game and the memory of all the wonders he has brought us over the years will keep the mood on his side, despite his lucrative deal to boost Saudi Arabian tourism and the merciless, mocking behavior of his Argentinian His quarter-final penalty shoot-out win over the Netherlands put a few dents in the unquestioning worship of his genius.

When the moment comes at Lusail Stadium, will he turn away and say, “I’m terribly sorry, I’m tired?” Will it be too much? So far it hasn’t looked like that at this tournament.

He seemed hungrier and more energetic at this World Cup than at any other. And the team around him is full of zeal to win the tournament for their country and also for Messi.

Messi must find a way to carry his team across the finish line and win the biggest prize of all

Sure, his prime is over, but his genius still burns bright. The world will have its eyes on the desert on Sunday to see if Messi joins not just Pele and Maradona, but Jordan and Woods and Gretzky and Williams as well and Kohli can connect.

This is his last dance. This is his last chance. Now he must find a way to do what the greatest have always done.

He must find a way to carry his team across the finish line and win the greatest prize of all.