The highly controversial 2022 Qatar World Cup which took place from November 20 to December 18, has been one of the best World Cups to date. Iconic moments, historic upsets, and thrilling narratives have made this World Cup one to remember. Of these narratives, the biggest one is Messi’s last dance. Messi is considered one of the best players ever but was missing only one thing to cement his status as the best ever: the World Cup. Leading up to the final, Messi has put on one of the best World Cup performances since Maradona in 1986. Although it had seemed his Cinderella story was ending early after losing the first game of the tournament against Saudi Arabia. His goals, assists, playmaking, and leadership led his talented and young Argentine team past Mexico, Poland, Australia, Netherlands, and Croatia to play its 2nd final in 8 years.  

The team standing in front of Messi and Argentina was no other than the reigning world champions: France, led by the man who has quickly cemented himself as the best player of the new generation, Kylian Mbappe. Apart from Mbappe, the French National team has some of the best players in the world in every position, such as Dembele and Varane. Despite losing to Tunisia in the last game of the group stage, no other team dominated their opponents like France as they got past Australia, Denmark, Poland, England, and Morocco to earn their spot in their second World Cup final in a row. 

On the evening of December 18, the long-awaited final kicked off. The French seemed incredibly nervous off the bat, losing the ball easily early on. Argentina took advantage of these mistakes and pushed forward every chance they could. Argentina constantly looked to switch the ball to Di Maria, who was being incredibly dangerous on the left wing. In the 21st minute, Di Maria received the ball far wide and cut into the penalty box, where he was fouled by French player Ousmane Dembele, awarding  Argentina a penalty kick. Messi buries it and Argentina takes the lead, 1-0. Fifteen minutes later, Argentina scored one of the best goals ever in a World Cup final, as a beautiful combination between Mac Allister, Messi, Julian Alvarez, and Di Maria took advantage of a disorganized French backline and took the lead 2-0, as Di Maria scored in a final once again. At the end of the first half, France hadn’t been able to get into the game as Argentina had dominated them in every aspect of the game. 

The second half began with little change between the two sides. Although it became more back and forth, Argentina continued to win more duels in the midfield and created chances. In the 64th minute, my man of the match, Di Maria was subbed off for Acuña. This substitution would change the game as Argentina was left with few options to create danger which led to the French pushing up their shape and starting to be a little bit more threatening. Argentina was holding on until their first defensive mistake of the final in the 79th minute led to Kolo Muani being fouled by Otamendi in the box. France was awarded a penalty and Mbappe blasted it into the right-hand side of Dibu Martinez. 2-1. Only 1 minute later, Messi loses the ball, and a beautiful 1-2 between Mbappe and Thurman at the top of the box leads to Mbappe volleying it into the bottom corner and equalizing the game. Nobody could believe it. France hadn’t had a single chance for 79 minutes and Argentina had dominated but it was 2-2 with 10 minutes left. 

The rest of the game would be back and forth with both France and Argentina having a chance to possibly win the match. The 90 minutes ended in 2-2, and the World Cup final would be going to extra time for the 4th time in the last 5 World Cup finals. 

The next 30 minutes of extra time would be thrilling with attack after attack from both teams. In the 17th minute a ball is played over the top to Lautaro Martinez and a combination between him, Messi, and Enzo Fernandez would lead to Messi finding a rebound and barely scoring to make it 3-2. When everyone thought it was over, France was awarded another penalty for a handball by Montiel in the 27th minute of extra time. Mbappe scores his hat-trick (3 goals) and makes it 3-3. Then, in the last minute of the game, Kolo Mauni has a one-on-one with Dibu Martinez, the Argentina goalkeeper, who made possibly the most important save in the history of the sport. It was full-time and the World Cup final was going to penalties. 

In penalties, Dibu Martinez became eternally cemented in the history of Argentina and the World Cup as he saved one penalty and then Gonzalo Montiel scored his penalty to give Argentina their third World Cup, their third star, in their history. Immediately all cameras pointed toward Messi as his biggest dream had come true.  

This was without a doubt the best World Cup final ever. It had absolutely everything a game can have and will be remembered for the rest of every viewer’s life. Filled with iconic moments, including Messi finally winning the World Cup, this World Cup final and the World Cup is a 10/10. If it had been written in the stars, it would be impossible to make it better than it was.