Seven goals, three assists, and a World Cup winner's medal. Was Qatar 2022 the finest individual performance in the tournament's 92-year history?
The debate about Lionel Messi's place in football history was, for many years, blocked by a single question: why had he never won a World Cup? In the summer of 2022, at the age of 35, he answered it — and in doing so produced what many consider the greatest individual tournament performance in the 92 years of the FIFA World Cup.
Messi had played in four previous World Cups. He had been the tournament's best player in 2014 — the Golden Ball — despite Argentina losing the final to Germany in extra time. He had been anonymous in 2018, eliminated in the round of 16. In 2006 and 2010, he had shown flashes but the team had never been built around him properly.
Qatar 2022 was different. Coach Lionel Scaloni had spent four years building a team — a collective — in which Messi was the central reference point but not the only player capable of winning a game. Julián Álvarez was a revelation as the striker. Enzo Fernández controlled midfield. The defensive organization was compact and disciplined. For the first time, Messi had a team worthy of him.
Seven goals. Three assists. Every single match played. A penalty shootout save from Emiliano Martínez in the quarterfinal. A tournament-defining performance in the final against France that produced two goals — including a penalty and a first-time volley — plus one assist. His expected goals total across the tournament was 5.2, meaning he significantly outperformed even that elevated benchmark.
But statistics alone do not capture what Messi did at Qatar 2022. He carried Argentina through the psychological crisis of losing to Saudi Arabia in the group stage. He scored the goal that beat Australia in the last 16 — a delicate, deliberate right-foot finish that announced he was playing at a different level. He scored twice against Croatia in the semifinal. And then came the final.
“In the final, Messi scored twice, won a penalty, and created one goal. At 35 years old, in the biggest match of his career, he was the best player on the pitch.”
Argentina's 3-3 draw with France — won on penalties — was possibly the greatest World Cup final ever played. Messi opened the scoring with a penalty after winning the foul himself. He added the second with a cool finish after an Ángel Di María cross. France came back through Kylian Mbappé's hat-trick, including a stunning equalizer in the 118th minute.
Then came Messi's penalty shootout moment. In the 108th minute — extra time, score level at 3-3, every decision carrying the weight of legacy — he struck a powerful left-foot volley from outside the box that beat Hugo Lloris, only to be disallowed by VAR for an offside in the buildup. He stood and watched it ruled out, composed, and then went and scored his penalty in the shootout with the kind of certainty that comes only from a player who has fully accepted his own greatness.
The benchmark for the greatest individual World Cup performance has historically been Pelé in 1958 — 17 years old, scoring six goals, arriving like a supernatural visitation. Maradona in 1986 carries the argument for the greatest series of individual performances: the Hand of God goal, the Goal of the Century, carrying a limited Argentina squad to the trophy.
Messi 2022 compares to both. Unlike Pelé, he carried a team over a full tournament as the undisputed best player at 35. Unlike Maradona, he did it against the deepest and most tactically sophisticated generation of opponents in football history. His 7 goals and 3 assists from a wide attacking role — dropping deep, drifting in behind, pressing from the front — represented the full tactical portfolio of the modern footballer played at maximum intensity throughout a seven-game tournament. Whether it is the greatest individual World Cup performance depends on your era. It is certainly the greatest of the modern era.