MLS, retirement - or one more World Cup?! What's next for Messi?

Daniel Edwards

• Updated: 19 Dec 2022 18:26 GMT
• 5 min read

Lionel Messi was minutes away from being formally acquainted with the World Cup trophy. But after 16 years of yearning, the Argentina captain could not wait any longer.

As he left the stage following the awarding of his second Golden Ball as the tournament's best player, Messi spotted the object of his affections. He wasted no time: sidling up, he planted a kiss on the top of the cup, before finally holding it aloft to the delight of his team-mates and an entire nation.

A beautiful chapter of football history has finally been written. The finest player of his generation has got his hands on the World Cup, the trophy for which he sweated and sacrificed so much for almost exactly half his life after first taking the field for Argentina as a teenager in 2005.

At 35, Messi has touched the stars. Now, the obvious question: exactly where does he go from here?

In the immediate future nothing is likely to change a great deal. Certainly Messi, with PSG's likely rather begrudged blessing, will take a sizeable break from football to recharge, having played every one of Argentina's 690 minutes (excluding stoppage time) in Qatar.

The Argentina plane will arrive back in Buenos Aires on Monday evening and a multitudinous victory march is planned the next day at the Obelisco landmark, which attracted an estimated 3 million revellers celebrating shootout victory over France. From there the most probable scenario will see Messi remain in his native Rosario throughout the festive period, perhaps reporting back to France at some point in mid-January to resume PSG's desperate quest for Champions League glory.

What happens once the 2022-23 season ends, for better or worse, is rather less clear. Messi has been widely reported to be considering a move to MLS at the end of the term, with Inter Miami in pole position to clinch what would be the biggest transfer in league history.

Sunday's final victory removes one great obstacle to that deal. To put it simply, Messi has achieved everything he set out to do in his sparkling career. World Cup; Copa America; Olympic gold; Champions League(s); league titles in two countries; Seven (and surely soon to be eight) Ballons d'Or and more than 800 career goals between club and country: what more could he have to prove?

Messi is fiercely competitive, of course, but he is not Cristiano Ronaldo, obsessively chasing record after record. The Argentine will not push himself to the limit for 1000 goals, or 200 Champions League goals, or any other such footnote in the history books.

He has the big prize, the one that drove him to distraction for years as Argentina fell short. His legacy in both Argentina and the wider world is secure, as a true peer of the great Diego Maradona in the former and, in the latter, perhaps the best player ever to have played the game.

If in return for that joy Messi wishes to receive in return two or three relaxed years in the Florida sun, nobody could hold that against him. He has given so much to this sport, and it is a great relief to see him finally take something back.

Will there be a 2026 surprise?

Let us not close the book quite so soon, though. In the euphoria of victory and after stating on several occasions this World Cup would probably be his last. Leo hinted as to his future with the national team.

“I love football, it’s what I do. I enjoy being in the national team and want to continue by experiencing a few more games as a world champion," he told reporters. Coach Lionel Scaloni went even further: “For now, I think we should save a place for him for the next World Cup. If there are 26 spots...”

We may allow ourselves to be selfish, and dream of the little wizard, still going strong at 39, taking the US, Canada and Mexico by storm; but what sweeter way to conclude the Messi era than with the World Cup in hand, the No. 10 on his back, serenaded in Buenos Aires by tens of thousands bellowing out Muchachos, the chant that became Qatar's unofficial anthem.

"I was born in Argentina, land of Diego and Lionel," the lyrics proudly boast, before promising to avenge the pain of past defeats. But in the streets of Argentina on Sunday Muchachos had already undergone a subtle alteration. "We've already won the third, we're now world champions."

Nobody did more to achieve that than Messi, who refused to leave the pitch for even a single second lest his dream somehow be put in jeopardy without him there to watch over it. If 1986 was Maradona's World Cup, this one belongs to Leo, marking a high point in his already spectacular career and, at 35, perhaps the perfect send-off?

The decision will of course be Messi's. He owes nothing to anyone, his entry to Argentina's Pantheon of sporting greats alongside Maradona, Fangio, Monzon and Di Stefano already assured. All we can do is appreciate whatever time he has left on the field, knowing that we will probably never see his like again.