It seemed the perfect goodbye. Lionel Messi had scored two goals in a World Cup final, a third in the shootout. He had emulated Diego Maradona by lifting the World Cup as Argentina captain. He had been named player of the tournament and man of the match in the final. He had completed football.
It looked a decidedly imperfect goodbye. The supposed GOAT was reduced to the status of Portugal’s 12th man; or 13th, given that a substitute came on at the same time as Joao Cancelo. Cristiano Ronaldo was dropped for the knockout stages, seeing his replacement Goncalo Ramos score a hat-trick in the 6-1 thrashing by Switzerland and being unable to rescue Portugal as they went out 1-0 to Morocco. He had become the first man ever to score in five World Cups, but none of those goals were in the knockout stages. Messi’s eventual triumph seemed to end an argument about which of them was the greatest; only Ronaldo fanboys could disagree now.
