by Dom Smith

WHEN Moses parted the Red Sea, they say a small Argentinian man approached him and asked him to reverse his wonders. The little Argentine then repeatedly kicked a small round object through the middle of the ocean, and somehow not a single drop of water touched his sacred feet. Where there was no space, he always found space. He still does.

If there was ever a sportsperson who did not need to become world champion to be crowned the best their sport has ever seen, it was Lionel Messi. If this final was ever going to be won by the guile and greatness of a single man, it was Lionel Messi. If one player was going to heave their nation all the way to World Cup glory, it was Lionel Messi. It is all about Lionel Messi.

Sporting legacies are too often decided by non-sporting factors like behaviour, character, and personality. But even if Cristiano Ronaldo had inspired Portugal to glory in Qatar and it had been Lionel Messi who sulked on the bench and got himself sacked by slagging off his own club, it would still be Messi rightly being lauded as the greatest footballer of his generation. Sometimes, just sometimes, a major sport is tilted on its axis by a player operating not a single level but multiple levels above everyone else. Messi is this, in the way that Ronaldo is merely a great goalscorer.