Messi plays the last final of his life tomorrow — and spent the eve promising to 'give it our all'
On the eve of the World Cup 2026 final against Spain, Messi turned up at Fanatics Fest in New York, posed for selfies with Brady and Djokovic, and left one promise: Argentina will give everything at MetLife.
Messi has one match left. One. And it happens to be a World Cup final. At 39, Argentina’s captain walks into MetLife Stadium tomorrow for what everyone — himself included — treats as the last World Cup game of his career, against a Spain side arriving unbeaten in 37 matches. Around 1.5 billion people are expected to watch how it ends.
The eve was not spent in monastic silence. On Friday night Messi appeared at Fanatics Fest in New York, where he was received as the headline act on a bill that included Tom Brady, Novak Djokovic and Kevin Durant — and all three queued up for a selfie, which tells you everything about the evening’s pecking order. Earlier, with Scaloni at his side, he had stopped by FIFA’s Fan Fest and spoken to reporters with the calm of a man who has already won everything: Argentina, he promised, “will give it our all” to retain the title.
When is the Argentina vs Spain final?
This Sunday, 19 July, at 8pm Lisbon time at MetLife Stadium — both teams’ paths and the numbers behind the duel are in our full preview of the final. Before that, tonight at 10pm, England and France settle third place in Miami.
What is at stake for Messi?
Beyond Argentina’s second straight title, a rare personal double: with eight goals, Messi leads the Golden Boot race and could add the tournament’s best-player award — a combination managed only three times in nearly a hundred years of World Cups, most recently by Schillaci in 1990. The official match page is on FIFA’s website.
If this really is the end, it is an ending written to order: the best player of his generation, on the game’s biggest stage, with the whole world watching. Tomorrow night we find out whether the farewell comes with a trophy.
By Vasco Almada
Image: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
