Messi leads Argentina to win World Cup championship

Football fans won’t have urges to watch a ‘football movie’ for a while. The final match of the 2023 Qatar World Cup was quite superb. The masterpiece final, which was featured by Lionel Messi (35, Argentina) and Kylian Mbafe (24, France), dropped the curtain in happy-ending for Messi.

Argentina was the one to hold the glorious golden cup on Monday in Lusail, Qatar, defeating France after a thriller-movie like ‘six-goals of ruthless match’ plus penalty shootouts – the most brutal sports rules in history. It is the third win of Argentina in an international competition in 36 years since 1986, then the final game against Mexico. This time, the two teams’ regulation time ended 2-2; extra time ended 3-3; and then there were penalties that Argentina won 4-2.

As everybody had expected to see the ‘match of the century’ between the two major players, Messi scored two while Mbappe scored a hat-trick. Messi finally held the championship trophy he had longed for at his fifth World Cup, celebrating his ‘last dance.’


Dong-Wook Kim creating@donga.com