Copa America
Tears, suffering and yet the next Messi coronation
Lionel Messi wins his third major title with Argentina since 2021 Photo
© Rebecca Blackwell/AP/dpa
Copa winner 2021, world champion 2022, Copa winner 2024 – Messi and Argentina remain in the title rush. But the superstar has to go because his ankle is swollen. It remains to be seen whether he will continue.
1,100 days after their first triumph at the Copa América, Argentina won the South American championship again on Sunday (local time) in Miami with Messi on the bench from the 66th minute. “Leo was born to be on the football field,” said national coach Lionel Scaloni. “He never wants to go out because he doesn’t want to let his teammates down.” The broadcaster TyC Sports wrote: “All for one.”
In Messi’s new adopted football home, the seven-time world footballer crowned his unique career once again. Argentina beat Colombia 1-0 (0-0) in the final, which was accompanied by worryingly chaotic and dangerous conditions and raised security concerns with a view to the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico. It remains to be seen whether Messi will still play for Argentina. “These are the last battles. We should enjoy everything we experience as a national team,” he said before the final. Messi will be 39 years old in the summer of 2026.
Messi’s own Copa story
For a long time, the Copa was something of a nightmare for Messi, and in 2016 he even announced his retirement from the national team after another failure in the final. What followed was a World Cup to forget in 2018 in Russia, before Lionel Scaloni took over the team and led Argentina to its most successful era, with the absolute highlight of winning the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Messi’s tears of disappointment and suffering were also dried when he raised the huge trophy in the night sky over Miami after his seventh Copa final with the help of his long-time teammates Ángel di Mariá, who was playing in his last international match, and Nicolás Otamendi. The only goal of a hard-fought match was scored by Lautaro Martínez in the 112th minute.
“Impressive,” wrote “La Nacion.” “Rio de Janeiro, Wembley, Qatar, places in the world where this Argentine team in sky blue and white has taken the lead. Another place has been added to the winning streak: Miami,” said “La Capital.”
Messi, who had long since exchanged his golden shoes for flip-flops, and coach Scaloni embraced each other long and deeply. No coach before the 46-year-old, who was in Messi’s squad as a player at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, had managed to let Messi develop so much in the national team.
While FC Barcelona was Messi’s place of footballing achievement for many years, he really blossomed in the South American selection since his forced departure from Barça to Paris Saint-Germain in the summer of 2021. And he won the titles that seemed almost forever eluded him.
Party at the Obelisk in Buenos Aires
The fact that he was now holding a major trophy in his hands again in Miami, where he has been playing for a year, fits in with the final dream career of this exceptional talent, who has now won a total of 45 titles at club and international level – also a superlative in world football. Together with his wife Antonela Roccuzzo and their three sons, Messi was already beaming again when the next memorable photo in his football album was taken, and the party really got going in the dressing room.
And the next football fiesta was already taking place at the Obelisk in Buenos Aires. With 16 Copa titles, Argentina is now the record champion. World Cup record champion and arch-rival Brazil has been powerless against the superiority in sky blue and white for some time. And Messi has long since won the hearts of his fellow countrymen after a years-long struggle for recognition since moving to Barcelona as a 13-year-old.
After Argentina’s World Cup victories in 1978 and 1986, he and di María, who scored the goal to make it 1-0 in the 2021 Copa final against Brazil, crowned their golden generation by defending their title. Amid tears and the cheers of the Argentine fans, di María was substituted in the closing stages. “I am eternally grateful to this generation for giving everything and making me achieve what I wanted so much,” he said. “The ending was like in the movies,” Scaloni stressed.
Reunion between Messi and Yamal?
The question of what will happen to Messi is likely to continue to preoccupy not only Argentine football. There was no diagnosis for his injury, which immediately reminded some Argentinians of Diego Maradona’s swollen ankle at the 1990 World Cup. But Messi could face a longer break for the time being.
But after 186 international matches and 109 goals, will he stick around for another two years until the World Cup to try to defend his title? If so, then two football generations would meet again next year. The date and venue for the Finalissima have not yet been decided, but the two teams have: Argentina and Spain after their European Championship triumph against England in Berlin on Sunday.
18 years after a photo shoot, Messi could meet Spanish shooting star Lamine Yamal from Messi’s favorite club FC Barcelona again. In 2007, Messi bathed Yamal as a baby during a photo shoot and lovingly held him wrapped in a blanket.