(Argentina : France ) Qatar 2022 World Cup will be determined by any of the two 🤲🏻⚽️😜

       The first World Cup in the Middle East has been going on for thirty days and 63 games, and the 90,000-seat Lusail Stadium in Doha will host the championship match between Argentina and France, two-time winners. Will it be the pinnacle of Lionel Messi’s illustrious football career or a ceremony when the torch is passed to the nimble Kylian Mbappe? 

   Lionel Messi asserted, “We can win it,” and Didier Deschamps, manager of France, concurred, “We can hold it.” Whichever of those two predictions comes true on Sunday will elevate either person to legendary status. While Les Bleus will become the first side to retain the World Cup in 60 years and Deschamps will become just the second person in history to win the World Cup three times (once as captain in 1998 and once as manager in 2018), it will be the pinnacle of Messi’s already illustrious career. 

   France won for the first time in 1998 in Paris, and it took them 20 years to win it back in Russia in 2018. Prior to Diego “the Hand of God” Maradona becoming immortalized with a second victory in Mexico in 1986, Argentina’s first victory also occurred on home soil in Buenos Aires in 1978. 

   In 1990, when Maradona once again showed off his genius and guided Argentina to the championship final, where they lost to Germany 1-0 on a disputed spot kick, Argentina came close. Italy defeated France on penalties in the 2006 final, with France making headlines for a headbutt by Zinedine Zidane. 

   Argentina was ranked third by FIFA going into the Qatar 2022 World Cup, while France was placed fourth. La Albiceleste are valued at $686 million on Transfer Market, whereas Deschamps’ squad, which includes Mbappe, probably the best young football player in the world, is valued at $1.1 billion. To emphasize, Paul Pogba, Karim Benzema, and N’Golo Kante are not on this French team. 

At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Lionel Messi celebrates after scoring against Mexico. [POTO: TW @brfootball] 

At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Lionel Messi celebrates after scoring against Mexico. 

   Messi declared, “This is my last World Cup,” following Argentina’s 3-0 victory over Croatia thanks to a masterful effort. He said emphatically, “There’s a long way to go until the next one (in the summer of 2026), many years, and undoubtedly due to age I won’t go to it.” As a result, he has one more chance to capture the one title he has yet to claim. 

   The titles are numerous, but the most significant ones are as follows: Copa America in 2021; FIFA U-20 in 2005; an Olympic gold medal in 2008; five UEFA Champions League championships; three FIFA Club World Cup championships; ten La Liga championships; and the UEFA Cup of Champions in 2022. 

  READ ALSO: Messi takes Argentina back to the World Cup final in Qatar 2022 

   After Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo’s duopoly, Mbappe has not been shy in declaring that he will head the next generation of football players. The 2018 World Cup winner declared, “I think I’m about to win it [the Ballon d’Or],” in a September interview with the New York Times. I’ll say it forever: I have dreams about everything. I have no boundaries. So, of course, it’s a new generation, as you say. And you’re going to stop, Messi and Ronaldo. Someone new must be found; someone else. This came very close to claiming “I am the anointed.” 

But Messi or Mbappe won’t be defined by one game. 

   It won’t be as quick or simple to replace the guard or transmit the torch from Messi’s brilliance to Mbappe’s crowning as what they manage at Buckingham Palace every day. Messi will take home the Ballon d’Or in 2023 based on what we saw in Qatar. 

The World Cup triumph will serve more as a gloss than as proof. Messi’s brilliance has polished and powered this Argentina team, bringing them all the way to Sunday’s title game while Mbappe has been thrilling and occasionally unstoppable. 

   Both players for the PSG supported by Qatar have netted five goals in Doha, with Messi having four of those goals come from the penalty spot and three spectacular assists. While Olivier Giroud and Antoine Griezmann have steadily demonstrated they are capable of being just as important, Mbappe has displayed flashes of brilliance. 

   Messi, 35, currently occupies the GOAT [greatest of all time] debate stage by himself and has a unique opportunity to transform legendary into immortal. Not even Diego Maradona will be able to compare if he leads Argentina to victory on Sunday. Can Messi surpass all other football greats in history? If he wins the World Cup on Sunday, many more people will bowed down and become believers. Some will argue that he is already the GOAT.