Messi with world cup

In some ways, Argentina's Lionel Messi 'completed' football when he and his South American teammates lifted the World Cup trophy for the first time on December 18. For many in the sport he was already considered the greatest of all-time but his overall 2022 World Cup performance to help secure Argentina's third title was immense even by his sky-high standards. Here, The Sporting News keet track of all the data that mattered the most during Messi's time at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. MORE: Lionel Messi 2022 World Cup stats After performing at an incredibly high level for club side PSG so far this season, Messi entered the 2022 World Cup in fine form, and he carried that into the tournament, in some style. Updated after Argentina's final victory vs. France. Stat Total Rank amongst 2022 World Cup players Goals 7 2nd Expected goals (xG) 6.58 1st Assists 3 =1st Expected assists (xA) 1.95 2nd Shots 32 1st Shots on target 18 1st Shot conversion rate 21.9% =57th Chances created 21 2nd Dribbles completed 15 3rd Dribble success rate 45.5% =57th Touches in opposition box 45 2nd Successful passes 296 15th Passes played into the box 49 2nd Total carries 145 7th Progressive carries 79 8th Duels won 44 3rd = means joint in statistic. How many goals did Messi have at previous World Cups? At the 2022 World Cup, Lionel Messi joined a handful of footballers to have played in five different editions of the competition. He's now played 26 times across four World Cups, with his previous best f...

The 2022 FIFA World Cup just became a coronation. Football almost never delivers perfect narratives, so when it happens it's all the more impactful. And so it was at Lusail Stadium today, as the greatest player the game has known won its ultimate trophy in dramatic fashion. Lionel Messi, at 35, has finally won the World Cup with Argentina, leading his national side to an epic victory over the 2018 champions France, And we can, more comfortably now, crown him the finest men's footballer of all time. It was only fitting that Messi's heir apparent, Kylian Mbappe, surged towards the end of this game, scoring three goals in a losing side. Messi had been the best player in the tournament but was fading towards the end of the final. It seems destiny got in the way to deliver him the ultimate prize. The only asterisk that hovered over his legacy was a failure to win the biggest prize in the sport — the World Cup Trophy. That failure is now a gleaming success story. Read more about the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 • • • Final stamp of greatness a long time coming By five years into his professional career, it was obvious Messi was dancing alongside the gods — the Maradonas and the Pelés. But while those two in particular earned their legacies early with World Cup wins (relatively young for Maradona at 25, extremely young for Pelé at 17), then spent the rest of their careers defending their reputations, Messi has almost been the opposite. Messi took no prisoners during the 2022 World C...

Lionel Messi did not need this. But he did deserve it. For too long the World Cup has hung over him, more a crushing force than a prize to be embraced. Messi made the impossible into the ordinary. Still, he had to deliver more. He had to deliver that missing piece. He had to scale the heights Diego Maradona had summited in 1986. Thirty-six years on, Messi delivered a fitting tribute to the man he will always be set against, whose parting in 2020 seemed to provide this team with the propulsive force to become champions, first of South America The parallels with their last triumph are staggering. A two-goal lead wrenched from them in a matter of moments, only for their great player to deliver. Messi's greatness absolutely deserves to be seen through its own prism, but make no mistake: He, his teammates, Argentina and the world at large have viewed this tournament through the prism of Maradona. Like the debate between those two in totality, which of these tournaments was the greater individual achievement will inevitably be in the eye of the beholder. But one could have argued that 1986 was an unreasonable standard to hold Messi to. No one should have to win a World Cup on their own but still – with all due respect to the outstanding contributions of Emiliano Martinez, Julian Alvarez, Angel Di Maria and Alexis MacAllister – he did. No player had ever scored in the group stages, round of 16, quarterfinal, semifinal and final until Messi. CBS Sports has a brand new daily soccer...

Lionel Messi will soon be playing games in the U.S., but he will not take the field in the country during the globe’s biggest soccer tournament three years from now. The 2022 World Cup champion announced Tuesday that he does not plan to play in the next edition of the tournament across the U.S., Canada and Mexico in 2026. “I think not,” he told Chinese sports outlet Titan Sports, via Messi said ahead of the 2022 event that it would be his Jun 8 After finally claiming World Cup glory, Messi said he would continue playing with Argentina The next stop in Messi’s career is Miami. The 35-year-old announced last week that he is joining MLS club Messi is currently in China with the Argentinian national team for an international friendly against Australia on Thursday. La Albiceleste will then head to Jakarta for a friendly against Indonesia on Monday.