Lionel Messi admitted he always believed he would win a World Cup title with Argentina.
Messi lifted the 2022 World Cup trophy aloft in Lusail, as La Albiceleste won arguably the greatest World Cup final of all time, up against defending champions France.
Messi’s spot kick, and a measured finish from Angel Di Maria put Argentina on the road to glory, before Messi’s Paris-Saint Germain teammate Kylian Mbappe scored twice to dramatically send the contest to extra time.
Messi put Argentina back in front, and Mbappe buried another penalty, but is was Argentina who edged the shootout, to crown Messi as world champion.
Despite feeling the weight of history over his attempts to win a World Cup, Messi insisted he remained calm, in spite of huge drama in Qatar.
“It’s impressive that it ended this way. I knew at some point God would give it to me and I felt it was going to be this way”, as per reports from Marca.
“We suffered a lot, but we made it through. We can’t wait to be back in Argentina and to see how crazy that is going to be.”
The Argentina squad are expected to fly to Buenos Aires in the next 24 hours with celebrations planned across the country including in Messi’s home city of Rosario.
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