LUSAIL, Qatar — Lionel Messi began his ride off into soccer’s golden sunset with teammates streaming across the field. He’d just scored the goal that Hollywood had scripted, in the 108th minute of a manic World Cup final, his last game on soccer’s biggest stage. Limbs flailed all around him. Friends mobbed him. An ear-splitting roar filled the Lusail Stadium. It crescendoed again as Messi wound up for an undercut pump of his right fist, and louder still as he spun to all sides of the arena, soliciting more noise, all part of a celebration of a would-be winner that lasted nearly two full minutes.
As Lionel Messi ascends to a tier of his own, Kylian Mbappé proves he isn't far behind
