Gary Neville has picked Lionel Messi as his player of the World Cup, for helping elevate the levels of his Argentina team-mates.
The South American champions booked their place in Sunday’s final vs France with a thumping victory over Croatia in the semi-final, with Messi dazzling yet again. The Paris Saint-Germain superstar scored once and created another during the 3-0 win, bringing his tally in Qatar to five goals and three assists.
And the 35-year-old is currently leading the race for Golden Boot by just one assist from Kylian Mbappe - with the PSG team-mates going head-to-head for not only that individual prize, but for the biggest team one in the sport.
Ahead of the final at the Lusail Stadium, there is debate raging over who the best player at the tournament has been, with Messi hoping to become the first player in World Cup history to win two Golden Balls.
ITV pundit Neville thinks the veteran striker has the edge over his younger club colleague - believing Mbappe has better surrounding talent within the French squad. "I'm going to say Messi because I think Mbappe is in a far better team than Messi,” Neville told Sky Sports.
“I think Mbappe has great players around him, whereas Messi, you look at the players around - don’t get me wrong...they're of a good standard."
It’s a far cry from the start of the tournament for Argentina, who were beaten by Saudi Arabia in their Group C opener. Their campaign was hanging by a thread at half-time of their second game vs Mexico with Neville infamously claiming: “Players aren't fearful of Lionel Messi anymore.”
Neville’s comments almost instantly backfired, with Messi opening the scoring against Mexico and kickstarting La Albiceleste’s tournament in the process. And while Neville has been forced to backtrack on his earlier verdict, he still thinks Messi’s compatriots are working overtime to counteract his lack of movement off the ball.
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Neville added: “I took a picture actually at the end of the game on Tuesday night - Argentina vs Croatia - and it was the last five minutes. There were 10 Argentinian players camped on the edge of the box and Messi on his own! It sort of summed up Argentina really.”
Messi has already confirmed that this weekend’s final will be his World Cup curtain call as he looks to finally complete his set of major trophies. “It does feel like a mission to him, the World Cup, doesn’t it?” Neville explained.
“And the rest of his team are so collective around him in terms of how they’re playing, they’re almost saying ‘we’re going to keep a clean sheet, be horrible to play against, we’re going to do everything right then he’ll go and win us the game, he’ll do something’, and that’s what is happening.”
