CHENNAI: With 25 minutes left on the clock, the camera pans towards a 39-year-old Lionel Messi. You know the pattern; you have observed it all quite well over the past 48 hours: two legendary figures – Neymar Jr and Cristiano Ronaldo – have bid their goodbyes to international football. The last one of this generation, and perhaps the greatest of all generations, is the last man standing.
Ironically, he’s standing and walking without having much effect on this game. History seems to be writing itself. The last time the Argentine forward announced his international retirement, he had missed a penalty that led to the team’s exit.
At a crucial juncture of the clash, when emotions usually run high, heads are hung low. You can’t help but think: is it really the final dance? Would prayers even work anymore?
You flick your eyes to the screen, and you see Messi go down. But there’s something different this time around. He isn’t hanging his head low; he isn’t fuming at himself for all the missed opportunities but is lowkey preparing himself for the ultimate battle. You can sense that he’s flicked a switch, now moving himself to the wing – a position where he tormented several defenders during his peak.
But he was 39; his body wasn’t the same; his energy levels weren’t the same. Yet, two of the most important things for a footballer of Messi’s ilk – vision and hunger – remained. Every passing minute of the clash against Egypt was another passage of Argentinian prayers.
The once-hung head was suddenly the steadiest; the one who gets criticised week in and week out for walking on the football pitch was suddenly bolting from one end to the other, evading players like they were on fire. When everything else checks out at this age, Messi’s vision still holds him in good stead as he cuts across a defence-splitting pass straight into the forehead of Cristian Romero.
It wasn’t a pass; it was a telegraph, straight from the feet of god.
It wasn’t a goal; it was a warning, a warning that Argentina could do the unthinkable and etch history in Atlanta, overturning a 2-0 deficit with just minutes to go for the final whistle. Messi’s head was now high, higher than it ever was, as his search for the equaliser continued. For a brief second, it looked like it was coming when he passed one through to Julian Alvarez, but the opportunity passed by.
Before you even realised what on earth was happening, Argentina was already on another attack, this time orchestrated (unsurprisingly) by Messi, as he slipped past a few Egyptians to find the perfect weighted ball. As the ball moved away from the goal, it seemed like destiny’s favourite child wasn’t destined for another date with destiny.
But within milliseconds, he was on it, pouncing on the loose ball like it was his prey. It wasn’t so much the goal but the movement, the vision to find the only gap available between the defender and the goalkeeper, and the fierce timing that sent the ball flying and the roof rattling down.
It wasn’t Atlanta anymore; it was Avellaneda, it was Aguilares, it was Alta Gracia, it was Arrecifes, and every other Argentine city that starts with the letter ‘A’. And for Messi, he wasn’t calm anymore; he jumped and let out an uncharacteristic roar that reverberated inside the arena, which turned itself into a war zone.
You knew that the script was supposed to end in a very stark manner, and a 39-year-old ideally shouldn’t have had any say in the final proceedings of an encounter in 2026.
This wasn’t Argentina and Messi; it was Argentina for Messi; the players ran, jumped, and hula-hooped themselves to find Messi.
He wasn’t a storyteller anymore; he was answering prayers, not just for the 30-odd Argentinians under a fancy roof called the dugout but for thousands sitting with bated breath in Atlanta and the millions back home, who were all doing one thing in unison: praying. Praying that their god of football heard them at least once and fulfilled another wish of theirs.
When Enzo Fernandez flung himself in mid-air to swerve the ball like it was straight out of another episode of Galactik football, you knew that the prayers were answered. As cruel as fate would have it for Egypt, and its journey of 70 amazing minutes in Atlanta, it was on its way out of the FIFA World Cup.
All it had done was anger Argentina’s god of football.
As the referee blew the final whistle and signalled the end of a footballing war, it seemed like 2016 all over again, a missed penalty, Messi crying his heart out after the final whistle.
Some footballers score goals. Some win trophies. Lionel Messi does that both and more. He gives millions a reason to believe. Once again, their prayers were answered.