Lionel Messi: Incredible video of Argentine players celebrating with him after WC win | OneFootball

Lionel Messi is a world champion.

The seven-time Ballon d’Or winning superstar finally got his hands on the prize that had previously alluded him by winning the World Cup Qatar.

His career is now complete and he may well have cemented his status as the greatest footballer of all time.

While this was a victory for the whole of Argentina, it’s hard not to be delighted for Messi.

For much of his international career, Messi appeared cursed.

Losses in World Cup and Copa America finals saw him momentarily retire from Argentina duty.

But he’s since returned and has now led his nation to Copa America and World Cup titles.

The World Cup trophy was the last piece of the Messi puzzle. The one argument people had against him in the GOAT debate.

And you could see just how much it meant to him when Gonzalo Montiel scored the winning penalty in the final to seal the ultimate glory.

While his Argentine teammates were delighted to win the World Cup for themselves, it was evident they were equally delighted to have helped Messi fulfil his dream at the last attempt.

That much can be seen in an incredible video that has gone viral.

The video has been viewed almost one million times on Twitter and shows pretty much the entire Argentine playing squad individually going up to Messi to celebrate their World Cup victory.

It’s captioned: “Most of them grew up watching Lionel Messi play and now they’ve helped him achieve the one thing he always wanted, the World Cup. They didn’t lie when they said ‘We would go to a war for Messi.’ I love this.”

VIDEO: Argentine players celebrating the World Cup with Messi

De Paul: We’d go to war for Messi

It was Atletico Madrid’s Rodrigo De Paul – who has a beautiful relationship with Messi – who declared he would go to war for his Argentine captain.

“When he becomes your captain, you’d go to war for him if he asked you to,” De Paul told FIFA before the World Cup.

This Argentine side certainly went to war for Messi and they ended up winning the damn thing.

Is Messi now the GOAT?

So, does the World Cup make Messi the GOAT?

Plenty of people in the Messi camp have made their voices heard since last weekend and the latest in Manchester City, Pep Guardiola.

Before City’s clash against Liverpool in the EFL Cup on Thursday, Messi’s former Barcelona manager insisted the Argentine is the greatest ever.

“Everyone has an opinion but nobody can doubt that he is there, with the greatest of all time,’ Guardiola said. “For me I said many times, he is the best, but it will be difficult to understand.

“A player can appear and compete with what he has done in the last 50 years to 70 years, but the people who saw Pele or [Alfredo] Di Stefano or Maradona, they can say their favourite.

“In their opinions they are sentimental, you know? But on the other side, if he [Messi] had not won the World Cup, my opinion about what he has done for world football, it wouldn’t have changed absolutely anything. Of course, for him it’s the final achievement of an incredible career.”

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(The Football Terrace)