ARGENTINA have qualified for the 2026 World Cup with ease as the outstanding team from the South American qualifying section. A victory against Venezuela on Thursday night saw a familiar name take the headlines, perhaps for the last time on home soil.

Lionel Messi was treated like a deity as he played what many believe will be his last official game in Argentina. The Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires was packed out as spectators, including colleagues and coaches, came to worship one of the greatest ever.

Religious language is often used in football for effect and exaggeration, but when it comes to Messi, it is close to literal. Tears flowed pre and post-match, in the stands and on the pitch. There was genuine reverence from those in attendance towards their star player. 

Messi himself looked emotional, demonstrating that he knew the significance of the occasion, suggesting it was indeed his last game in Argentina and that he is aware his playing career is approaching its end.

The 2022 World Cup had felt like it would be Messi’s swansong at that level, but no statements were made, and the only loose end that was tied up was the pretty significant one of a World Cup trophy to Messi’s name.

After that, Messi just kept on playing. He continues to be defined by his football ability rather than his age, which is forgotten during the 90 minutes he is on the pitch.

At club level, he moved to one of his family’s favourite holiday destinations, Miami, to see out his career with Inter Miami in Major League Soccer.

Messi is 38, and will turn 39 during next year’s World Cup, a good portion of which will also be played in Miami. He casually added another Copa America title to his name in 2024, also on US soil with a Miami final, and all three of Messi’s major titles with Argentina — two Copas and a World Cup — have come while in his 30s.

Apart from social media highlights, Messi’s matches have been away from the spotlight since his move to MLS. Games from the league are shown on its own streaming service via Apple TV and are no longer available on the channels around the world to which fans already subscribe to watch their domestic leagues.

Prior to the Apple TV deal, MLS games were available on Sky Sports and on Freeview in the UK, but followers of English football will no longer encounter MLS on their TV channels unless they go looking for it and pay the £14.99 per month or £99 per year MLS Season Pass subscription fee.

It has seen MLS drop off the radar somewhat, and has perhaps contributed to Messi’s performances going underappreciated.

The same could be said for Argentina games, which are played late at night for European time zones, and are not often readily available on the usual TV channels.

But Messi is still regularly the best on the pitch in any game in which he plays, and regardless of his age, he is still one of the best players in the world. He was not nominated for the 2025 Ballon d’Or, but he should have been.

He was part of an Inter Miami team that won the 2024 MLS Supporters’ Shield (the closest thing MLS has to a league title), accruing a record-breaking 74 points during the regular season. 

Messi won the league’s MVP award that year despite missing a good chunk of the season due to the Copa America and a subsequent injury, but his performances when he did play remained at a remarkable level.

He scored 20 goals and made 10 assists from just 19 league appearances (15 starts) in 2024, putting him ahead of players who had played far more minutes, and only three goals behind the top scorer that season, Christian Benteke, who played over 1,000 minutes more.

In that 2024 season, Messi averaged 1.21 goals per 90 minutes played, the highest in league history.

In the ongoing 2025 season, Inter Miami have struggled under new head coach Javier Mascherano, but Messi’s return remains ridiculous. 

He went on a run of five games in which he scored two goals in each, and has a total of 19 goals in 19 appearances in MLS so far this season.

He scored a memorable free-kick in the Club World Cup against Porto, taking Inter Miami to the knockout stages against the odds, and showing he can still perform against good European opposition.

Messi has not confirmed or ruled out participation in the 2026 World Cup, but if recent behaviour is anything to go by, he will just keep on plugging away and keep on playing.

He scored two goals in Thursday night’s 3-0 World Cup qualifying victory against Venezuela. His first left defenders and goalkeeper clattering into each other, helpless to stop the ball finding the net as it was lifted over them in trademark fashion.

The other goal not scored by Messi was set up by Messi. It was the pass before the assist, so it won’t trouble the statisticians, but it was the type of moment fans savour as a single pass from a quickly taken free kick opened up the Venezuela defence and allowed Nico Gonzalez to square to Lautaro Martinez.

Having apparently said goodbye to Argentina, Messi’s swansong is now likely to take place on North American soil, either at the World Cup or with Inter Miami. 

His current contract with the Florida club expires at the end of 2025, but at the moment, the idea of Messi just keeping on playing, as he did after 2022, can’t be ruled out.

Fireworks lit the sky above the Estadio Monumental at the end of the game on Thursday. Given Argentina had already secured World Cup qualification back in March, these were for Messi alone, and the presumed significance of the game, lest he doesn’t just keep on playing.