"I've been enjoying it from the beginning. I'm happy, enjoying every moment and excited as always." Messi said that last week. He's 38 years old, carries a hamstring that gave way in an MLS game last month, and is about to do something no footballer in history has ever done.
Six World Cups. Not five. Six. When Messi steps out against Algeria in Kansas City on Tuesday — expected to earn his 200th Argentina cap in the process — he becomes the first man to play in six different tournaments. Ronaldo, his career-long rival, is chasing the same milestone. Of course he is.
The 2022 farewell that wasn't
After Qatar, Messi said it plainly: "Obviously, I wanted to finish my career with this. I can't ask for any more." He'd just scored seven goals across the tournament, netted twice in one of the great World Cup finals, and lifted the one trophy that had eluded him his entire career. Walking away then would have been the perfect ending.
He didn't walk away.
Instead he moved to Inter Miami in 2023, helped them win the MLS Cup, scored 13 goals in 16 games in 2026, topped South American World Cup qualifying scoring, and then captained Argentina to the Copa America in 2024. The farewell tour became a second act. Now he's on a third.
Playing in MLS means the weekly competition level isn't what it was during his Barcelona peak — that's just honest. But the evidence from this calendar year suggests it hasn't blunted him where it counts. A penalty off the bench against Iceland last week quickly silenced the fitness concerns that had been building. Argentina's odds of retaining the World Cup — something no nation has managed since Brazil in 1962 — look considerably healthier with him in the squad than without.
What Argentina actually need from him
Scaloni's side aren't asking Messi to be 2012 Messi. They need him functional, dangerous in pockets, and capable of producing the moments that tilt knockout games. He's shown repeatedly he can still do that.
Teammate Julian Alvarez put it cleanly: "We're all fully aware that this could well be Leo's last World Cup, given his age, but it's his decision at the end of the day. He's made a colossal impact the world over."
If Messi plays Tuesday, he joins Cristiano Ronaldo and Kuwait's Bader Al-Mutawa as the only men to reach 200 international caps. He'll then be the only player alive who has played in six World Cups. The record books have been rewritten so many times for this man that it barely registers anymore — but this one is different. Nobody has been here before.
