At 39, Messi is wiser and more lethal
Lionel Messi is no longer supposed to be doing this. Football celebrates youth and worships speed. Messi will turn 39 on June 24. Yet, the goals keep coming, as he showed during his 11th international hat-trick against Algeria — his first at the World Cup. He began the night chasing Kylian Mbappé’s World Cup goal-scoring record. The French superstar’s brace against Senegal took his tally to 14. Messi hunted down that mark and levelled German great Miroslav Klose’s all-time record of 16 World Cup goals. Reducing Messi’s longevity to goals and assists, however, misses the larger point. What separates him now from the other greats is not the explosive acceleration that once left defenders stumbling, but an almost supernatural understanding of the game. He sees spaces before they appear, recognises patterns before they develop and dictates matches without needing to dominate every moment. In this World Cup, Mbappé and Erling Haaland have lit up the tournament with two goals each. But it’s Messi who seems to be stealing the show. Tougher challenges await Messi and Argentina. But this performance adds heft to their title defence. The years may have inevitably taken something away from Messi. But they have also revealed another version of the legend: Calmer, wiser and perhaps even more influential.
- 1On governance, football's global order rests on FIFA, founded in 1904 and now comprising 211 member associations, more than the United Nations' membership, which illustrates how sport builds its own quasi-constitutional rule-making bodies. National federations such as India's AIFF operate under FIFA's statutes, and FIFA's own governance crises since 2015 prompted reforms separating its 'political' Council from an administrative arm. This layered structure mirrors public-law ideas of separation of powers within a private global regulator.
- 2Geopolitically, World Cup football is a prime instrument of soft power and sporting diplomacy; Argentina, Messi's side, won the 2022 edition in Qatar, and the 2026 tournament is being co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, the first three-nation hosting in the event's history. Hosting rights confer prestige and economic spillovers, making bids fiercely contested diplomatic exercises. Star players like Messi function as informal cultural ambassadors for their nations.
- 3On the legal and regulatory side, the modern football labour market was reshaped by the European Court of Justice's 1995 Bosman ruling, which let out-of-contract players move freely within the EU and struck down nationality quotas. Player movement is now governed by FIFA's Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players, with disputes heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne. These frameworks underpin the contracts and transfers that shaped careers such as Messi's move to Inter Miami.
- 4Economically, the sport is vast: FIFA reported revenue of about 7.5 billion US dollars over the 2019 to 2022 World Cup cycle, and the 2022 final drew a global audience estimated near 1.5 billion viewers. A single elite player can move merchandise, ticketing and broadcasting numbers by measurable margins, which is why clubs and leagues compete intensely for marquee names. Messi's commercial pull illustrates how individual talent translates into billion-dollar ecosystems.