The record that is still available. Leo Messi will go to the final of the World Cup on the first day of the week with one clear goal in mind – winning the World Cup together with Argentina. But the “Flea” will face a very tough opponent – the French national team. And for the Albiceleste to finish this game with a smile, they will need their undisputed star at the peak of his power.
Leo Messi is in fantastic form. The PSG player started the season great also in the ranks of the French team with 12 goals and 14 assists in 19 games and continued in the same form into the World Cup.
With five goals and three assists in only six games, “The Flea” can become the first in history to finish the tournament as the leader of goals and assists. At this point, he shares the top spot in both categories along with Kylian Mbappe (five goals) and Bruno Fernandes (three assists), while Antoine Griezmann and Harry Kane also have the same number of assists.
But there is a catch. Because the Argentine superstar does share the same numbers with Mbappe and Fernandez, but he did it in more minutes than them (540 compared to Mbappe’s 477 and 540 compared to Fernandez’s 357 and Griezmann’s 467). Therefore, formally it does not lead to any of the categories.
As a result, Messi will have to score and cook in the final game in order to rise to the top in both categories, while at the same time hoping that Mbappe does not score and Griezmann does not cook against his team.
By the way, the last one who was very close to registering such an achievement is none other than Diego Armando Maradona. The one who led Argentina to the second win in history in the World Cup in 1986 finished the tournament as the king of assists with five such, while adding five goals. Unfortunately, Englishman Gary Lineker led the scorers table with six.