He has won the World Cup, he has also won the Golden Ball. But there is still a place empty in Lionel Messi’s colorful career – the World Cup Golden Boot.
Today is the last chance to erase that regret. However, the task is not easy, it can be said to be one of the toughest challenges in history. Because, Kylian Mbappe.
Mbappe scored a brace against England in the third-place match. The French forward’s goal tally in this tournament is 10. And Messi now has 8 goals.
Today, in the final against Spain, even if Messi scores two goals, it will not be enough. Because, even if the goal tally is equal, Mbappe will be ahead. Both have 4 assists.
In that case, the minutes played on the field will be taken into account, where Mbappe is supposed to be in an advantageous position. The French star played 769 minutes, Messi 712 minutes. Although he played 58 minutes on the field in the final, Messi’s time spent on the field will be more. The Golden Boot will take into account who has played fewer minutes.
Overall, Messi has two main paths to win the Golden Boot—
- Score a hat-trick in the final against Spain. Then Messi’s goals will be 11, surpassing Mbappe’s 10.
- Score at least one assist with two goals. In that case, his goals will be 10, assists will be 5. Messi will surpass Mbappe thanks to the assist.
However, reality says that the most likely equation is a hat-trick. If that is the case, Messi will also rewrite history. Because, so far, only two hat-tricks have been scored in the World Cup final—England’s Geoff Hurst in 1966 and France’s Kylian Mbappe in 2022.
Interestingly, Messi got his first World Cup hat-trick of his career this season. The Argentine captain scored three goals against Algeria in the first match of the tournament. Now the question is, can he repeat what he did at the beginning at the end?
The difference is huge. That day, the opponent was Algeria, today, the best team in Europe is Spain.
Yet Messi’s career is full of stories of making the impossible possible. He can do many things. Can he do this too?
The answer will be found today in the final, starting at 1 am Bangladesh time.
