Lionel Messi Has Nothing Left to Prove Yet He Keeps Proving It Anyway

Lionel Messi didn’t need the 2026 World Cup to prove his brilliance, but he’s cemented his position as the greatest footballer ever nonetheless.

The 2022 final was supposed to be Messi’s last World Cup match. He even said so himself. “I am very happy for finishing my journey in World Cups in a final, to play the last game in a final,” he said following Argentina’s 3-0 semi-final win over Croatia back in December 2022.

Four years on, though, Messi is still running the show.

History in the Making

Now 39, tonight sees Messi become the oldest outfield player to appear in a men’s World Cup final at 39 years and 25 days old, with only Italian goalkeeper Dino Zoff — who was 40 years and 133 days old in 1982 — having done so at an older age. Based on his form at this tournament, there’s every chance he becomes the oldest goalscorer in a World Cup final too, which would break Nils Liedholm’s record from the 1958 showpiece between Sweden and Brazil (35 years, 264 days).

The final also marks Messi’s 34th World Cup appearance overall, seven clear of his nearest rival, Cristiano Ronaldo. Widely considered his biggest competitor in the debate over the greatest player of their generation, Messi has moved even further ahead of the Portuguese during this tournament. While Ronaldo ended with yet more World Cup disappointment, Messi has only grown more effective with age.

Carrying Argentina, Just Like 2022

Just as in 2022, Messi has almost single-handedly carried Argentina to this final. He’s either scored (eight) or assisted (four) 12 of Argentina’s 19 goals at this World Cup — 63% of the team’s entire tally — and he even provided the cross that led to Diney Borges’s match-winning own goal in the last-32 tie with Cabo Verde. En route to the 2022 final, Messi had a hand in eight of Argentina’s 12 goals (67%), before adding two more in the final against France.

He’s the only player at this World Cup involved in at least half of his team’s shots, either as the creator of the chance or the player registering the attempt. His proportional involvement of 52.7% is almost identical to his figure in 2022 (53.0%), when he led Argentina to glory. His 59 shot involvements (34 shots, 25 chances created) is 41 more than any other Argentine at this World Cup — Alexis Mac Allister is next on the list with 18.

Not since Diego Maradona in 1986 has a nation relied so heavily on a single player as Argentina have in the Messi era. Barring his first World Cup in 2006 — when he played just 121 of a possible 510 minutes — Messi has been involved in at least 42% of Argentina’s shots at every tournament he’s featured in. Since 1966, only seven players have registered 30-plus shots at a World Cup while contributing to at least half of their team’s shots. Two of those instances belong to Messi, in 2022 and 2026, while the other belongs to Maradona in 1986 (55.7%).

Rewriting the Record Books

Messi is now the second-highest scorer in World Cup history, having passed Miroslav Klose’s 16-goal tally to reach 21. Kylian Mbappé sits on 22 after a brace against England.

Messi’s tally of 12 goal involvements in 2026 is only bettered by Gerd Müller’s 13 for West Germany in 1970, the best return by any player at a World Cup since 1966 — as far back as assist data is recorded. He also now leads the all-time World Cup assist rankings since 1966 with 12, having overtaken Maradona’s mark of eight during this tournament.

Despite being named the best player at the 2014 World Cup, Messi’s overall goal and assist tallies across his first four tournaments had somewhat underwhelmed relative to his broader legacy. That has emphatically not been the case since the 2022 final. Messi has racked up 22 goal involvements in 14 World Cup appearances across the last two tournaments (15 goals, 7 assists) — more than any other player over that span. Between the 2006 and 2018 finals, by contrast, he managed just 11 goal involvements (six goals, five assists) across five more appearances (19 in total).

A Different Player in the Knockouts

Messi’s impact has been even greater in the knockout stages, when it’s mattered most. He famously hadn’t scored a single goal in a World Cup knockout match heading into Qatar 2022, despite being involved in eight such games up to that point. Across the eight knockout matches he’s played since, in 2022 and 2026 combined, he’s scored seven goals and set up six more.

His two most recent assists came in the semi-final comeback win over England, with Thomas Tuchel’s questionable tactics in the closing stages criminally allowing Messi room to operate in the final third, where he inflicted maximum damage after a quiet opening hour. His first assist followed a quick short corner that England were slow to react to, finding Enzo Fernández in space on the edge of the box to equalise. His second was a inch-perfect cross with his weaker right foot, met by Lautaro Martínez’s header right in front of goal.

That was one of six open-play crosses Messi delivered against England — his highest tally in a single World Cup game, beating the previous highs he’d set against Switzerland (five) and Egypt (four) in the two matches prior. All 15 of those crosses came after half-time across the three games, with only two arriving before the hour mark.

Growing Into Games

It could have been Lionel Scaloni’s tactical instruction, but it’s more likely a combination of the freedom afforded to Messi and his own game intelligence that has seen him naturally drift from central areas into wider right-sided positions. He’s done exactly that in the second half of Argentina’s last three games whenever the team was behind or level.

Much of Messi’s brilliance lies in drifting into positions unnoticed, even with opponents keeping close tabs on him, and it’s allowed him to grow into matches at this tournament. Across those last three games, Messi has had 88 touches in the first half compared with 200 after half-time (a figure that includes 30 minutes of extra time against Switzerland). That works out to 59 first-half touches per 90 minutes played, versus 109 touches per 90 after half-time.

This is just another string to Messi’s bow, not a new one, but he remains the most dangerous player in world football operating in the central zone just outside the box — “the hole,” or “zone 14,” as it’s sometimes labelled, is his natural habitat. It’s been no different at this World Cup: 19% of his open-play touches have come in that area of the pitch, the highest proportion he’s ever recorded in that zone at a World Cup, up from 16% in 2022.

Sixteen of his 34 shots (47%) have also come from that zone — another tournament high for him. With their captain so central to the team’s style, it’s no coincidence that Argentina as a whole have posted a tournament-high 33.1% of their attacking-half touches in the central third of the pitch.

From Barcelona Heartbreak to International Glory

Messi had already achieved unparalleled individual success — a record seven Ballons d’Or and the World Cup Golden Ball in 2014, alongside a host of major club honours — but success on the international stage eluded him until 2021. Finishing as joint-top scorer and winning the player of the tournament award in Argentina’s 2021 Copa América triumph, after three prior final defeats in 2007, 2015 and 2016, changed everything. Since then, Argentina have added the 2022 World Cup and the 2024 Copa América, with Messi central to both triumphs.

A win in tonight’s final would mean Argentina have won the last four major international tournaments they’ve contested — all of them coming since Messi played his final game for Barcelona in May 2021. It’s impossible to say for certain, but perhaps the move away from the club he joined as a young teenager in 2001 gave him a fresh focus for international football.

Either way, there’s a certain symmetry to Messi bowing out of his World Cup career against Spain, the country where he’s spent most of his life and where he enjoyed 17 sensational seasons in Barcelona colours, scoring a record 672 goals in a record 778 appearances for the club.

Even with victory on Sunday, Messi wouldn’t be able to match Pelé’s record haul of three World Cup titles with Brazil between 1958 and 1970, but he would join a select group of players with two World Cup wins to their name.

Many had written off the impact Messi could still have at this tournament, given he’s now plying his trade in Major League Soccer, a competition ranked just 18th in the latest Opta Power Rankings of the world’s strongest leagues.

They were wrong.

Messi is still just as impactful at 39 as he was in his peak years — just in new ways. He certainly didn’t need to be the most impactful player at this World Cup to prove he’s the greatest footballer of all time. But he’s gone and done it anyway.

Read More: Spain vs Argentina: Six Questions That Will Decide the World Cup 2026 Final
Also Read: Why Rodri Has Been Spain’s Most Important Player Leading to the World Cup Final

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