Argentina’s Lionel Messi lifts the FIFA World Cup 2022 and wins the Golden Ball award for the second time

Qatar: Lionel Messi celebrated more than winning the Golden Ball at the FIFA World Cup 2022 thanks to the historic win against France recently.

The Argentina star was named the player of the tournament in 2014 but cut a forlorn figure in the immediate aftermath of his country’s loss to Germany in the final. Messi has finally lifted the one trophy that he has hoped for for many many years.

Messi now a World Cup champion is also the first two-time Golden Ball winner as the World Cup’s most outstanding player. Scoring twice in the final, he finished the tournament with seven goals and three assists.

Kylian Mbappé had a tournament for the ages, culminating in the Golden Boot. He was the leading scorer with eight goals, and his hat trick in the final will be remembered for a long time despite coming in a losing effort.

Martínez’s nod completes quite the individual journey.

In 2019, he was plying his trade in the English Championship on loan with Reading after failing to break through with Arsenal, and he didn’t make his senior Argentina debut until 2021. Now, the 30-year-old is a world champion who played a critical role in the final.

Martínez denied Randal Kolo Muani in the third minute of second-half stoppage time to maintain a 3-3 deadlock. Then he stopped Kingsley Coman’s effort in the shootout to give his country an early edge.

Croatia’s Dominik Livaković and Morocco’s Bono both had solid cases to collect the Golden Glove, but Martínez’s heroics tipped the scales in his favour.

As much as he achieved, the 2022 World Cup might be the defining moment of Messi’s career, much in the same way the 1986 World Cup is remembered for Diego Maradona.

What this meant for the 35-year-old was evident in how his teammates reacted after Gonzalo Montiel converted the decisive penalty.

Maradona cast a long shadow, both because of what he helped the national team win on the pitch and what he symbolized for supporters. Nobody understood that more than Messi.

His relationship with fans from Argentina was somewhat strained as La Albiceleste fell short at a major tournament after a major tournament. Leading up to the World Cup, the country began rallying around him in a way it never had before.

Instead, Messi might now have supplanted both Maradona and Pelé in the argument over the greatest player of all time. FIFA World Cup 2022 Awards FIFA World Cup 2022 Awards