Lionel Messi led Argentina to their third World Cup victory on December 18, and he has since returned to French club Paris Saint-Germain to resume club duties.
But as Messi demonstrated on Saturday by posting a picture of himself and his Argentine teammates with the World Cup trophy, the magic of winning the big one is hard to forget.
The picture’s caption read, “How are you going to convince me that magic doesn’t exist?”
For his efforts with Argentina, Messi just received the “Champions of Champions” title, which is given annually by the French journal L’Equipe to the best athlete.
The award, which is chosen by the magazine’s staff, has been given since 1946 and has been open to athletes from countries other than France since 1975.
However, because of the high standards for voting, it was difficult for athletes who competed in team sports to be recognized. The top 2 this year, though, were both football players.
Messi took home the prize with an overwhelming 808 points, while Rafael Nadal of tennis, who just won two Grand Slams, Remco Evenepoel of cycling, and Max Verstappen of Formula One completed the top 5.
As one of the few footballers to win the award, Messi joins fellow countryman Diego Maradona (1986), Paolo Rossi (1982), Romario (1994), and Zinedine Zidane (1998).
When Messi arrived at the PSG practice facility on Wednesday, he was met with a guard of honor.
As he entered the practice field amid cheers, sporting director Luis Campos presented him with a special trophy.
Lionel Messi at the World Cup
Lionel Messi is without a doubt one of the best goal scorers in football history, having scored over 750 senior goals for club and country.
Prior to an outstanding performance in Qatar 2022, which helped Argentina win their third world cup, the Argentinian master had struggled to live up to these high standards on the FIFA World Cup stage.
In 26 matches over five FIFA World Cups, Lionel Messi has netted 13 goals (2006, 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022). Argentina’s top goal scorer at the World Cup of football is Messi.
According to the statistics, Leo Messi scores 0.50 goals per game during football World Cups.
Even while it’s an impressive statistic, it falls short of the 0.56 goals per game he averages when playing for Argentina at the international level.
Argentina’s all-time leading goal scorer is Lionel Messi, who has scored 98 goals in 172 international games throughout his career.
Messi ranks second among active players and third overall among all international goal scorers, just behind rival Cristiano Ronaldo.
Messi is listed a little further down the list at World Cups. Miroslav Klose of Germany has scored the most goals at the quadrennial competition (16 in 24 games).
Prior to Messi, Gabriel Batistuta was Argentina’s most prolific FIFA World Cup scorer (10 goals in 12 games).
Eight goals have been scored by Guillermo Stabile of Uruguay (four matches) and Diego Maradona of Argentina (21 games).
With 28 goals in 60 games throughout FIFA World Cup qualifying, Lionel Messi has a stellar scoring record.
