A historic evening at the Lusail Stadium saw Argentina add a third star to their colors, as La Albiceleste trumped France after a round of penalties.
The scenes following the victory were euphoric for any Argentine supporter, and by extension, for any admirer of the 5’7 magician named Lionel Messi.
After missing out agonizingly in 2014 and giving up entirely in 2016, Messi turned up with a vengeance for his last dance in Qatar.
Carrying the Argentine offence on his back at times, the 35-year-old rolled back the years and delivered a campaign comparable only with Diego Maradona’s exploits in 1986.
Football is often cruel and rarely does it leave room for fairytales. But even the Beautiful game itself had to bow in front of the legendary Argentine, who clutched on tightly to the Copa Mundial as soon as it arrived in his hands.
And by the looks of it, he refused to let it go.
Among the flurry of celebratory pictures, the PSG forward uploaded to his Instagram was one which displayed Messi asleep with the trophy still in his embrace.
Of course, he didn’t actually sleep with the trophy…we think.
Instead, it’s very likely that the Argentine was recreating the classic tradition of sleeping with silverware, it signifies glory, while also being the greatest flex possible.
We’ve seen many players do it in the past including Sadio Mane after his AFCON triumph with Senegal, and Mo Salah, who dozed off with the ‘Big ears’ on a plane.
The picture arrived on a day when Messi made all the headlines.
Aside from popping up on the cover of basically every news publication, he also dominated the online discourse by posting the most-liked Instagram photo of all time.
While we don’t expect this picture to hit similar figures, it wouldn’t be surprising to see it make the top ten list.
