Messi lifts Argentina to the World Cup finals with added motivation after confirming that this will be his last edition of the games that he will participate in.
After crushing Croatia with an incredible performance and lifting his team into the World Cup finals, Lionel Messi confirmed that Qatar 2022 will indeed be his last World Cup as a professional football player.
The 35-year-old is playing in his fifth World Cup and once again reached the finals after its 3-0 match against the feisty Croatians on Tuesday, where he scored his fifth goal of the tournament.
According to The Athletic, Messi sat down with the media after the win and broke the news.
“It’s my last World Cup,” he said. “It is impressive to end up playing a final. There’s a long way to go for the next one, there are many years and surely because of age I won’t get to it.”
Fans have been speculating of his retirement even before the start of the biggest sporting tournament in Qatar, more so after his spectacular plays in this year’s edition that sparked the hopes of his avid fans that he might attempt a sixth World Cup in 2026.
"I feel very happy to be able to achieve this, to finish my World Cup journey by playing my last game in a final," Messi told Argentine media outlet Diario Deportivo Ole.
The Paris Saint-Germain forward has now surpassed the four World Cup appearances of Diego Maradona and Javier Mascherano, while his fifth goal in Qatar, also surpassed Gabriel Batistuta as the top Albiceleste scorer at World Cups with 11 goals.
"It's all well and good (the records), but the important thing is to be able to achieve the group objective, which is the most beautiful thing of all," Messi added, reported the Hindustan Times.
Messi and Argentina are gunning for the cup as they try to avoid history repeating itself when the team saw its golden finish go to waste after they lost to a late goal from Mario Gotze in 2014.
“Hopefully this time it ends up another way.”
Tags: #FIFA, #WorldCup, #Messi