It may be the grandest over simplification of how a World Cup final will likely play itself out, but it is hard to not see Argentina’s Lionel Messi or France’s Kylian Mbappe leaving an indelible mark on the climax of the tournament in Doha tonight.
The talismanic figures of Messi and Mbappe have helped drag their respective countries into the final where they will hope to make magic one more time.
For some, tonight’s game is the transfer of the baton from a player of enduring excellence to one already on the cusp of writing his own history along with Pele as a double World Cup winner by age 23.
Whether Mbappe takes the baton from Messi on the Argentine’s terms remains to be seen in a final that doesn’t just pit the different hemispheres but contrasting football cultures.
That the sands of time will run out for Messi in the desert perhaps speaks to the many peculiarities associated with this World Cup.
Beneath these sands lay the natural resources and associated wealth that has helped bring Messi and Mbappe together as teammates at Paris St Germain.
Tied at five goals a piece, Mbappe and Messi are in a race for the Golden Boot, as well as the player of the tournament’s Golden Ball
The club’s owner, the Emir of Qatar, could not have wished for a better way of putting his country’s name up in lights, bar of course the home nation contesting the final.
For those in pursuit of prominence and prestige, it doesn’t come bigger or blingier than a World Cup final.
The pong of human rights violations, on-the-job death and potential corruption may hang thick over this World Cup but it is the final Qatar hopes will disinfect minds not focused on football.
As panaceas go, a Messi versus Mbappe match-up is as soothing at it gets. They aren’t just laying it on the line for Argentina and France but, tied at five goals a piece, are in a race for the Golden Boot, as well as the player of the tournament’s Golden Ball.
The smart money is on one of them getting both, but they may end up sharing those spoils.
It is their battle, especially with Messi as one of the protagonists, that has elevated this final. It is the trophy itself though that they covet. With doors swinging behind him in the last chance saloon, at 35 perhaps Messi is more desperate to enter the realm of the footballing gods.
It has perhaps demanded a new approach. Messi has gone a little mongrel at this World Cup. He remonstrates, and lashes out. Now he’s being seen, and heard.
Mbappe continues on his stealthier path. He drifts in an out of games but that he will continue to be at the sport’s cutting edge is a racing certainty. Whether of course he will exude the enduring quality of Messi over five World Cups remains to be seen.
For Messi though, the matter is more pressing. He will take with him into the final the failures of previous campaigns.
How Argentinians wish coach Jose Pekerman did not make a raft of substitutions that let Germany off the hook in the quarterfinals in 2006, or how four years later Diego Maradona’s intellect, and not his ego, had coached the team.
They came close in the Maracana in 2014 but Mario Goetze’s late goal for Germany had many Argentinians sobbing on the 48-hour journey home by car.
Frenzy and a fair whack of chaos characterise Argentina’s modus operandi, while for France organisational order and adding to an already clearly defined system have helped propel them to four of the last seven World Cup finals.
Messi has gone a little mongrel at this World Cup. He remonstrates, and lashes out. Now he’s being seen, and heard
It perhaps also explains why France have advanced to the final despite missing five players who would have been a shoo-in for a starting berth had injury before and during the tournament not played it’s cruel hand.
The system within which France operate lends them institutional knowledge of how to not just reach the game’s best lit stage, but how to vacate it exultant.
That glow, however, has partly dissipated as some of their players are a little off colour due to a virus that resulted in the absence of Adrien Rabiot and Dayot Upamencano in the semifinals. Raphaël Varane, Ibrahima Konate and Kingsley Coman missed training on Friday.
Les Bleus are said to be managing the crisis.
Varane’s restoration to fitness will be key. It will arguably fall to him to keep Messi in check as he has become the linchpin of the France defence.
Varane is not yet 30 but he has played for France for almost a decade and has learned through trial and error. It was he who conceded a needless free-kick in a position of promise for Germany who scored the only goal of their game in the Maracana in a tight and tense quarterfinal in 2014.
Similarly captain Hugo Lloris, Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud would have been stung by their defeat in the European Championship final in Paris in 2016 to Portugal.
Argentina will be abrasive and confrontational. They will try and crowd out France and in that regard it is perhaps Griezmann, rather than Mbappe, who will be more crucial to Les Bleus’ effort.
Deft, delicate touches allow him to operate in confined spaces and the former tennis ace could probably pirouette in a phone booth (if those still exist) if he wanted to.
In Griezmann, France have a player that is unobtrusive, yet elegant and effortlessly efficient. His remarkable consistency and durability has seen him play a record 73 consecutive matches for France.
But if some of French football’s brightest stars honed their pedigree at the sprawling Versailles-like green mass that is their national training academy at Clairefontaine, Messi’s minder Rodrigo De Paul did his on some hard streets.
The school he emerged from has made for a hard nosed, in-your-face footballer who was deemed a perfect fit by countryman Diego Simeone, the principle priest of pain at Atletico Madrid.
De Paul, though, can pick a pass too. It was his long transfer that sent Angel Di Maria on his merry way to scoring the winning goal against Brazil in last year’s Copa America final. That was their first major trophy since 2008 and once you have tasted success inside the white lines, it can be addictive.
That, inevitably, brings us back to Messi. The pass with which he put Nahuel Molina through on goal and left the usually ice cool and supple Virgil van Dijk stretched, mirrored Maradona’s in conception and execution in the 1986 final.
Maestro Maradona put Jorge Burrachaga into the clear with a pass of similar vision and precision which helped separate Argentina from West Germany in Mexico City. After staying clear of a defender Burrachaga neatly tucked the ball beyond keeper Harald Schumacher’s reach.
Burrachaga sprinted for the touchline where he dropped to his knees in ecstasy. He later recalled how the first teammate to reach him was the long-haired and bearded Sergio Batista. Burrachaga said he felt it was Christ himself who was leaning in for an approving hug.
Whichever Messiah reveals himself in Doha tonight, his surname will most likely start with an “M”.
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