‘Now it is difficult to argue against Messi being the best soccer player ever’

Lionel Messi walked alone in one light while it was dark at the Lusail Stadium and finally won the award that he has searched for with great pain in his football career.

The 35-year-old Argentine star rubbed his hands together in anticipation of his crowning glory, donning a traditional Arabic garment known as a bisht, before lifting the World Cup into the air amid an explosion of light.

Messi had reached his dream. The gap in his collection of awards was closed after the most spectacular World Cup final in history.

He can now add the World Cup to seven Ballons d’Or, four Champions Leagues, one Copa America, 10 La Liga titles with Barcelona and the Ligue 1 title in France with Paris St-Germain.

This is the trophy that millions of Messi fans will now use as an example in their argument that he is the best to ever play the game.

This is a crown, nearly 15 inches of pure gold, that will now have many saying Messi is the best – and those with counter-arguments will have a hard time defending their claims.

The comparisons stretch across generations, which adds a different dimension to the whole argument, but no one can deny that Messi is on the same level as Pele and whose picture was on many of Argentina’s posters at the Lusail Stadium on Sunday.

Undoubtedly, Diego Maradona, his famous predecessor in Argentina jersey number 10, had a great chance to be the best player. The difference was always his World Cup victory in Mexico 36 years ago – a victory that Messi did not have. Now that has been removed.

Messi will always be in any debate about the best player, and the fact that he now holds the highest honor that the international game has to offer makes the debate even stronger about his merits.

How do you begin to tell the story of how Messi reached his peak? How do you recount the events that eventually led to Argentina winning the World Cup and the climax of a tournament that will forever bear Lionel Messi’s name?

Messi should have known, given his history of World Cup woes and disappointments dating back to 2006 and including losing the final against Germany at Rio’s Maracana in 2014, that this was an honor he could not easily lose.

The fact that this spectacular night at the Lusail Stadium was full of suffering for Argentina and Messi on the cusp of their third World Cup triumph may have made it all the sweeter.

And it all happened in front of a talent from the 23-year-old who, if he hasn’t already, will join Messi in any discussion about the true star of the game in the years to come: France’s Kylian Mbappe.

France seemed to roll out the red carpet for Messi’s coronation as they threatened for 80 minutes. Lusail was Messi’s playground when he scored Argentina’s first goal with a penalty kick, making him the first player in World Cup history to score in the group stage. round of 16, quarter finals, semi finals and finals in one tournament.

Messi then helped set up Angel di Maria’s second goal, celebrations erupted among the Argentina fans until the much-anticipated clash with Mbappe took a dramatic turn.

Mbappe scored with 10 minutes remaining, then fired a powerful shot seconds later. Messi’s smile on the big screen in every corner of the stadium was one of disbelief “not anymore”.

Messi, of course, put Argentina through with his second goal in extra time but France equalized again with Mbappe’s penalty kick.

In a surprise, Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez saved with his foot from Randal Kolo Muani and the World Cup was in his hands in the final seconds, although there was still time for Lautaro Martinez to head into the open goal.

To say that extra time was high speed would be an understatement, with some fans even covering their eyes at that point, it was an unbearable tension.

It was a tense affair, it went to a penalty shoot-out which Argentina won 4-2, a painful way to settle a game that will now be talked about every time the World Cup is discussed.

When Gonzalo Montiel scored the decisive kick, Messi fell to his knees in tears in the center of the circle, arms raised to heaven before being buried under the blue and white striped shirts.

He then asked for a microphone to address the Argentina supporters amidst celebrations and cheers

Messi won the Ballon d’Or for the tournament’s best player, the first player to win it twice since its inception in 1982, after winning the award in 2014.

He has now been involved in 21 Argentina goals at the World Cup – 13 goals and eight assists, the most of any player for any nation. The goals in this World Cup final give him 793 goals in his career. He was also the first player to score in every round in the same men’s World Cup tournament.

There was one statistic that was more important than any other tonight: Messi was finally a World Cup winner.

He sat on the figure eight where he received the World Cup with his team, proud of the fact that he can finally fill that space in his trophy cabinet. It was a stage filled with friends and family of the Argentina squad, their country now back at the top of the football world for the first time since 1986.

Argentina’s supporters sat in their seats for more than an hour, going through the songbook that has become the anthem of their World Cup campaign, paying tribute to the man they looked up to. The man who made their dreams come true.

The shock of losing the opening match to Saudi Arabia seemed to be in the past. It was Messi who put Argentina in the World Cup gear with a great goal against Mexico and he was unstoppable as he carried it to the end.

Messi had the golden trophy in his hands. It was a mission accomplished – a mission that spanned more than 16 years until he came on as a substitute in Germany’s 6-0 win over Serbia and Montenegro.

The final chapter of Messi’s World Cup saga was a thriller from start to finish against France, with the plot twisting and turning. It provided a perfect ending to an unforgettable night in Qatar.