CELEBRITY
It’s one and final chance for Messi to be World Cup winner
Will the mecurial Lionel Messi join the league of Pele and Diego Maradona to truly be the Greatest Of All Time (G.O.AT)?
Both Maradona and Pele were World Cup winners in the era. But despite the acclaim Lionel Messi had recieved over a decade, and with successes at club levels, the World Cup had eluded him.
He agonisingly missed lifting the cup eight years ago in the final match of Argentina and Germany – the third time both teams met in the World Cup final.
For Lionel Messi, it is now or never. This, realistically, is the final World Cup match for him.
The Argentina superstar’s once-in-a-generation career will be defined — for many — by whether he leads his country to the World Cup title this Sunday, which Qatar, the hosts have ingenuously chosen as it is the country’s national day.
At 35, can Messi win the football’s biggest prize? Standing in his way is his PSG teammate, Kylian Mbappe who leads the offensive of France as the defending champions seek to become the first back-to-back winners in 60 years,
The last time a World Cup winning team successfully defended it title was at Chile 1962 when Brazil, the 1958 winners won. Argentina in the era of the legendary Maradona won in 1986, beating West Germany.
The South Americans got to the next final match again in 1990 against the same team but agonisingly lost through a dying minute penalty kick.
If past events were anything to go by, punters would have easily ‘awarded’ this Sunday’s match to Argentina as European teams hardly win the World Cup outside their continent.
But as it has always been, there is always a first time. Spain, in winning in South Africa 2010 to become the eighth team ever to win the World Cup.
So, the Spanish have opened the path for their fellow European side, France to tread.
The French team is anchrored on the youthful Kylian Mbappe who is seen as the player to take over from Messi and Ronaldo, the title of the face of global football.
Here, Qatar can claim to be the winner – hosting a World Cup final match anchored on two Paris St Germain stars whose club is owned by a Qatari man, Nasser bin Ghanim Al-Khelaif/
Mbappé also is standing on the cusp of history heading into the match at the 80,000-seat Lusail Stadium, a title decider that is filled with storylines.
The 23-year-old France forward is looking to emulate Pelé by being a champion at his first two World Cups and set up the prospect of a third title, a feat only ever achieved by the Brazil great who has been hospitalized during this year’s tournament because of a respiratory infection.
Mbappé was 19 when he led France to its second World Cup title in 2018, becoming the youngest scorer in a final since a 17-year-old Pelé did so in 1958. While Pelé ended up being a peripheral figure in Brazil’s 1962 triumph — he didn’t play in the knockout stage because of injury — Mbappé has been France’s go-to player in the team’s bid to repeat.
Indeed, Mbappé enters the final tied as the tournament’s leading scorer with five goals. The player alongside him? Messi, of course.
Who wins the Golden Boot — the award for the top scorer — is just one of the many other narratives around the final.
There’s France, the dominant national team of this generation, looking to become the first to win back-to-back World Cups since Brazil in 1962. The country that produced Michel Platini, Zinedine Zidane, Thierry Henry and now Mbappé will be playing in the final for the fourth time in the last seven World Cups, more than anyone else.
Then there’s Didier Deschamps, a World Cup winner as a player in 1998 and now bidding to win it two times as a coach. Vittorio Pozzo was the only other man to coach two world champion teams, with Italy in 1934 and 1938.
Like France, Argentina is seeking a third World Cup title — after 1978 and 1986 — to move into outright fourth place in the all-time list. It would end a 36-year wait for football’s biggest prize, since Maradona’s string of virtuoso performances in Mexico in 1986.
That made Maradona forever a hero in Argentina, and an icon around the football world. Messi now appears to be at that level — win or lose on Sunday when he’ll play in a record 26th World Cup match.
Messi has evoked comparisons with Maradona in the way he has pushed Argentina to the final, scoring five goals, setting up three more and thrilling his team’s legion of fans, who have poured into Qatar throughout the World Cup in numbers only really matched by those from Morocco.
In that sense, it will seem like a home game for Argentina, with France’s supporters sure to be heavily outnumbered amid a sea of blue-and-white jerseys — many of which will have “MESSI 10” written on them.
It is hard to pick a winner.
France is a hardened tournament team with plenty of experience and the quality to eke out wins when not playing at its best. Deschamps has kept France’s level high despite losing key players ahead of the tournament like Paul Pogba, N’Golo Kante, Presnel Kimpembe and Karim Benzema, the reigning world player of the year.
The French are the masters of being pragmatic, defending compactly and breaking at pace, typically through Mbappé down the left and through Antoine Griezmann, reinvented over the past month as a midfield playmaker.
Indeed, expect to see Mbappé and Messi walking around a lot during the game, not bothering to defend or press. That is in the script, rather than them being lazy. Part of the skill of Deschamps and Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni is their ability to forge a team that has learned to defend a man light.
As for Argentina, the team is largely set up simply to get the best out of Messi, with Scaloni likely to select a quartet of central midfielders like in the 3-0 win over Croatia in the semifinals. They will scrap and press, and then give the ball to Messi to weave his magic. Or to Julián Álvarez, the striker who started the tournament as a backup for that unthinkable 2-1 opening loss to Saudi Arabia and now is undroppable with four goals to his name.
Álvarez is pinching himself that, at 22 and pretty much at the start of his career, he is the attacking foil for Messi at the great man’s last World Cup.
Similarly, the tens of thousands of spectators inside the stadiums in Qatar, and the millions watching on television around the world, have continued to be amazed at the magic Messi keeps on delivering.
Anyone who isn’t French, or maybe a fervent fan of Ronaldo, is likely to be willing on Argentina’s diminutive No. 10 in the biggest match of his career.
Eight years ago, Messi walked away from the 1-0 loss to Germany in the 2014 final with the Golden Ball award for the tournament’s best player.
This time, he’ll want instead to be lifting another trophy, made of 18-carat solid gold, to cap a career like no other.
Diego Maradona’s death “would have been avoided” if the medical team around him had done their job, his daughter Dalma accused on Tuesday at the trial of health professionals of the circumstances of the death of the Argentine football idol
Dalma, 38, the elder of Maradona’s two daughters with his ex-wife Claudia Villafañe, was a star witness on the 11th day of the trial in San Isidro (north of Buenos Aires). And like others since the start of the trial, she blamed the caregivers of her father’s final weeks and the framework of his convalescence.
” If they had done their job, (his death) would have been avoided,” Dalma said, referring to the medical team and in particular to three of the accused: attending physician and neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov and psychologist Carlos Diaz.
” They deceived us (the family) in the most cruel way (…) They made us believe that the only possible option was to convalesce at home after his operation, in a house that was rented for the occasion in Tigre (north of Buenos Aires),” Dalma said.
According to them, ” it would be a serious home hospitalisation,” Diego would have everything like in a clinic, but in a house,” with 24/7 medical attention, medical equipment, an ambulance at the door permanently, she continued.
” It never happened,” she said in a statement often interrupted by tears. In this “disgusting, piss-smelling ” house, a doctor only came to see him from time to time.”
Maradona died at the age of 60 on November 25, 2020, from a cardiorespiratory crisis complicated by pulmonary oedema, in this private residence, where he had been convalescing for two weeks after neurosurgery for a head hematoma.
Seven practitioners – doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses – are accused of “homicide with possible intent”, characterised when a person commits negligence while knowing that it can lead to death.
Mr. Luque, who was close to Maradona, ” was his primary care physician, and I didn’t think he was recommending something that wouldn’t be best for my father,” Dalma continued.
With his sister Gianinna ” we didn’t have much influence, we could say what we thought but didn’t decide anything .” Sometimes someone from the care team or from the entourage would say “that Dad was sleeping, sometimes that he didn’t want to see anyone,” that the best thing was not to disturb him. “
” In hindsight, we should have decided.”
Last Tuesday, Veronica Ojeda, ex-partner and mother of Maradona’s son born in 2013, testified that the star’s close entourage “kept him as if he were sequestered” in the last months of his life.
The practitioners on trial, who deny any responsibility for the death, are seeking sentences of 8 to 25 years in prison. The trial is expected to last until July, with one or two hearings per week.
–Le360 (with AFP)
Mexican referee Marco Antonio Ortiz Nava found out the hard way that there are consequences for seeking an autograph from eight-time Ballon d’Or winner and World Cup winner Lionel Messi — he was hit with a CONCACAF disciplinary sanction.
As the final whistle blew on Inter Miami’s 1-0 Champions Cup win over Sporting Kansas City, secured by a brilliant second-half goal from Messi, the referee known as ‘El Gato’ approached the Argentina international.
He appeared to be asking for the striker’s shirt to join the Messi-mania, but it turned out he was actually requesting an autograph for a relative with special needs.
Despite the heartfelt request, Ortiz’s actions did not comply with CONCACAF’s code of conduct for officials.
“Upon investigation, CONCACAF has learned that the referee approached the player to request an autograph for a family member with special needs,” the North American football governing body said in a statement to ESPN.
Although the exact nature of the disciplinary action was not disclosed, CONCACAF added that Ortiz accepted full responsibility for his actions and apologised for his breach of protocol.
The first leg of the premier continental tournament for clubs from North America, Central America and the Caribbean was initially postponed due to a winter storm warning in the area.
Inter Miami will host Sporting in the return leg at Chase Stadium on Tuesday.
“The referee’s actions were not in accordance with the confederation’s code of conduct for match officials and the procedures in place for these types of requests.”
Reuters
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The world’s top athletes don’t just dominate on the field—they lead the way financially, too.
From football icons to basketball superstars, these elite performers are earning staggering sums through salaries, endorsements, and off-field ventures.
Using data from Sportico, sportsunlimitednews breaks down the top 10 highest-paid athletes globally.
10. Jon Rahm
On December 2023, Jon Rahm announced he was joining LIV Golf after a very successful stint at the PGA, earning 11 PGA Tour wins since joining in 2016. Now signed under LIV Golf, the Spaniard is considered one of the best-paid athletes in the world, accumulating $85.6 (€82.3/£68.55) million in winnings and $20 (€19.2/£16) million on endorsement deals
9. Kylian Mbappe
Following his massive transfer to Real Madrid in 2024, Kylian Mbappe is now ranked the 9th highest-paid athlete in the world. The French forward earns $85 (€81.6/£68.9) million in salary and $25 (€24/£20) million in endorsements, totalling $110 (€105/£88) million—a ‘galactico’ price tag for one of the best players in the world.
8. Karim Benzema
Another former Real Madrid star, Karim Benzema is ranked amongst the top ten best-paid athletes in the world following his move to Al-Ittihad (Saudi Arabia). The French striker earns $108 (€103/£86.4) million alongside $8 (€7.6/£6.4) million in endorsements.
7. Oleksandr Usyk
Up next, we have an undisputed heavyweight champion, who took down Tyson Fury for a second time in 2024. Oleksandr Usyk is arguably one of the best fighters in the world right now, and his earnings reflect that. The Ukrainian makes an average of $120 (€115/£96) million in winnings alongside $2 (€1.9/£1.6) million on endorsements, standing on $122 (€117/£97.7) million.
6. Neymar Jr.
Neymar Jr. is in the final stages of his professional football career. The former Barcelona and PSG man has enjoyed a successful stint across multiple teams around the world. Now in Santos FC, the Brazilian star is still considered one of the highest-paid players in the world, earning a $108 (€103/£82) million salary and $25 (€24/£20) million in endorsements.
5. LeBron James
The Los Angeles Lakers veteran and NBA star is ranked fifth in the world following his jaw-dropping $85 (€81.6/£68.3) million endorsement deals with Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. Alongside his endorsements, he cashes in a salary of $48.2 (€46.3/£38.6) million a year.
4. Lionel Messi
The Inter Miami star has one of the most lucrative contracts in world football. The Argentinian forward earns $60 (€57.6/£48) million a year, alongside $75 (€72/£60) million on endorsement deals. He is linked to Louis Vuitton, Mastercard and Pepsi.
3. Tyson Fury
The ‘Gypsie King’ is ranked third in the world, despite his recent losses and retirement announcement in late 2024. Fury cashed in $140 (€134.4/£112) million in winnings alongside $7 (€6.7/£5.6) million in endorsement deals, a very fruitful 2024 for the former British heavyweight champ.
2. Stephen Curry
Stephen Curry can still boast of having the highest-paying salary in the NBA for the eighth straight year. According to ESPN, his Golden State deal is worth around $55 (€52/£41.2) million this season. On top of that, the American point guard earns $100 (€95/£79.9) million in endorsements.
1. Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo still ranks at the top as the best-paid athlete in the world. The Al-Nassr star earns a jaw-dropping $215 (€206/£171.9) million salary, alongside $45 (€43.1/£35.9) in endorsements from Armani, Herbalife, TAG Heuer, and Clear Shampoo.
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