Lionel Messi finally won his first World Cup at the age of 35 back in 2022.
The Argentine delivered a string of masterful performances out in Qatar to fire Argentina to glory against France, scoring two goals in the final to end the tournament with seven goals and three assists in just seven games.
With end product like that in display, it would have been a travesty for the South American not to win the 2022 World Cup.
However, Lionel Messi could have two World Cup titles to his name – had VAR been around for the 2014 final against Germany in Brazil.
VAR could have seen Argentina receive huge advantage over Germany
In just the 33rd minute of Germany’s 1-0 win over Argentina, Benedikt Howedes lunged in on Pablo Zabaleta, leaving his studs deep in the defender’s knee.
It was an extremely reckless challenge, and, had it taken place nowadays – with VAR lurking in the background – we are confident the German would have been shown a straight red card.
We are unable to embed the footage for copyright purposes, but you can see the challenge here on X.
A dismissal at that stage of the game would have presented Messi and his teammates with roughly an hour of football against ten men in their attempts to win the World Cup – a huge advantage, to say the least.
However, Howedes was allowed to stay on, and played a key role in preventing Argentina from registering a shot on target as an extra-time strike by Mario Gotze secured the famous trophy.
What Lionel Messi said after Germany 1-0 Argentina
Understandably, Messi – who is favourite to win the Super Ballon d’Or – was devastated after the crushing defeat in Brazil, saying: “There is sadness to finish in this way, I think we deserved a little more today. The better chances were ours and between the forwards we couldn’t take them. We had three clear chances but we couldn’t get it.”
Ahead of the final, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner said: “I would give all my personal records to be world champion. I’d prefer to win the World Cup than the Ballon d’Or. As a player, winning the World Cup is the biggest thing there is. It’s something you dream of as a youngster and that dream never fades away.”
Fortunately – in what could end up being his final appearance at the World Cup – Messi, who Bukayo Saka idolises, was able to lift the coveted trophy in 2022.
