World Cup 2022 news LIVE: Lionel Messi and Argentina return home after final triumph over France

Lionel Messi has shared photos of himself ‘waking up’ with the World Cup trophy, two days after he led Argentina to their first world title in 36 years with a penalty shootout win against France.

The captain posted three photos of him in bed with the iconic trophy on Tuesday, along with the caption, “Buen dia (good morning)!” and a smiley face emoji.

Messi lifted the trophy in Qatar on Sunday after failing to go the distance at four previous editions of the World Cup.

The 35-year-old had come closest to winning the tournament in 2014, when Argentina lost the final 1-0 to Germany in extra time in Brazil. But Messi finally went one better last week, scoring twice in a 3-3 draw with France that was then decided by spot kicks.

Messi scored in the shootout as Argentina claimed their first world title since 1986, when Diego Maradona guided the nation to glory. The 2022 World Cup was the first edition of the tournament to take place since the Argentine icon died in 2020.

A black robe worn by Argentina captain Lionel Messi was given to him as a “mark of honour” as he lifted the World Cup trophy in Qatar.

The bisht – a thin see-through traditional Arab cloak – was placed on Messi by the Emir of Qatar before he joined his euphoric teammates as they celebrated their nail-biting victory over France.

Some viewers and broadcasters, unfamiliar with the garment and its significance, were left baffled but an academic explained that it was Qatar’s way of honouring Messi.

Dr Mustafa Baig, a lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, told the PA news agency that the bisht is a formal robe worn by royalty, dignitaries, grooms on their wedding day, and graduates at graduation ceremonies.

“So only a select few people would actually wear the bisht,” he said.

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Angel Di Maria’s influence on Lionel Messi’s path to the moment he lifted the World Cup trophy should not be forgotten. He is an essential part of the story.

Messi’s 35-year journey started on the streets of Rosario and saw him ascend to a place where only the footballing gods reside, carried on the wings of Angel.

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Emiliano Martinez, world champion. That might have seemed far-fetched four years ago when he sat in the stands as just another Argentinian fan in Russia, watching France win 4-3 in an epic World Cup knockout game.

There Martinez had told his brother sitting next to him that he would be playing in the next World Cup. It was ambitious to say the least. He was then 25, a back-up at Getafe on his sixth loan from Arsenal; another followed at Reading where his status rose, before an unlikely opportunity opened at Arsenal when Bernd Leno suffered a freak injury.

By 2021 he was Argentina’s No 1 goalkeeper. Soon he was Copa America champion, his saves vital in denying Richarlison and others at the end of a tense final at Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana, the place where Lionel Messi and co had lost the World Cup final in 2014. Martinez was at the heart of their salvation.

Now he has beaten France in the greatest World Cup final of all time – and by extension perhaps the greatest football match. It is some story, some rise.

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It was the World Cup of Lionel. The World Cup-winning captain who got the golden ball and the man of the match in five of his seven appearances, the player who scored in every knockout round, with a brace in the final, and the footballer who, for many, sealed his case to be deemed the greatest ever.

But also the other Lionel. The quiet man of Argentinian football, the facilitator of Lionel Messi’s dreams, the caretaker who became a World Cup winner. Lionel Scaloni is the first World Cup-winning manager who has been managed by Alan Pardew. It was probably not the secret of his success but, after securing Argentina’s first Copa America in 28 years, he now has their first World Cup for 36. He stands alongside Cesar Luis Menotti and Carlos Bilardo, though a modest figure argued: “I am not at their level yet.”

Perhaps it is because it will take time for him to get used to the idea of Scaloni being a World Cup winner.

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It was Lionel Messi’s day, it was Lionel Messi’s World Cup, but for more than a moment it looked to have been Kylian Mbappe’s. There is no debate that the Lusail Stadium staged the greatest World Cup final in history and, while the outcome was determined and decided by its biggest names, it was a match where its momentum and very spirit was shaken and influenced by so much more.

The illusion is thinking there was order to the chaos. At first it was Angel Di Maria and a masterstroke from Lionel Scaloni. And then it was Randal Kolo Muani and Marcus Thuram, thrown on out of desperation by Didier Deschamps. Argentina had been inspired but France responded. Then, when France had control of the World Cup and sensed history, Argentina found Emiliano Martinez and, from nowhere, Gonzalo Montiel.

This is Argentina’s World Cup, but this was a final that belongs to those who wrote its drama.

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Lionel Messi and his Argentina teammates celebrated their 2022 World Cup victory by singing, “I don’t care what the f*****g journalists say,” in front of the media in Qatar.

Argentina won the World Cup for a third time — and first since 1986 — when they defeated France on penalties in a thrilling final on Sunday.

And, after receiving the trophy, the squad moved their celebrations from the dressing room to the mixed zone, which is an area of the stadium where journalists wait to interview players.

There the Argentina squad sang: “Support the national team, support them to the death because I love Argentina, because it’s an emotion I carry in my heart. And I don’t care what those f*****g journalists say!”

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The best World Cup ever, Gianni Infantino had said. It turned out Fifa’s propagandist of a president was merely missing a word. The best World Cup final ever? The case grew stronger as the game grew more illogical, more credibility-defying, more dramatic.

Twice Argentina thought they had won the World Cup 2022. France’s responses – two goals in two minutes of mayhem, a further one in the 118th minute – amounted to the greatest comeback in World Cup final history.

Gonzalo Montiel came off the bench, first cost Argentina the trophy by conceding a penalty and then earned them it by scoring one in the shootout. If the journey from villain to hero was swift, it transpired some of an extraordinary evening’s heroics were in vain.

Here’s a look at Kylian Mbappe’s remarkable World Cup final performance:

A 13-year-old Lionel Messi once gave a Q&A interview while he was still playing for the youth teams at Newell’s Old Boys. Speaking to Diario La Capital, a local newspaper in Rosario, he revealed that if he could eat any meal, it would be pollo con salsa (chicken). If he could date any model, it would be Argentine television personality Nicole Neumann. If he could watch any film, it would be 1994 adventure comedy Baby’s Day Out. And if he could do any job, he would be a PE teacher.

Earlier this week, a grainy scanned copy of that interview went semi-viral across social media. You might have seen it, in fact. The story was picked up by several news websites and content platforms. It was one of the most “upvoted” posts on the r/soccer subreddit, no less. It was shared and reshared, ripped and aggregated, recycled and regurgitated until we had all had our fill of it, in the way that every new and previously undetected morsel about Messi is.

That is the challenge that Messi has posed to this profession since first declaring his genius: what else is there to say that has not already been said?

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It was a moment that Lionel Messi had imagined all his life, and he has long had pictures of it in his head, they just might not have looked much like this.

As the Argentina captain at last went to lift the World Cup itself, his team’s crest wasn’t visible, and you could barely see the famous blue and white stripes.

That was already unprecedented for a moment of such symbolism that teams often insist on changing into their home shirts if they play in the away colours. It was exactly what Spain did in 2010.

That iconic shirt wasn’t really visible on Messi, though, because he was wearing a bisht. It’s a garment that Middle Eastern dignitaries wear over a thawb on formal occasions, as a mark of special achievement.

It should immediately be acknowledged that this could have been quite a beautiful thing. It’s just impossible to separate it from the complicated context. Messi was given the bisht by Qatar’s autocratic ruler, for the moment of maximum visibility that goes down in history, at the climax of a competition this autocracy has been using for political purposes. That is inherently political, to say the very least.

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