Lionel Messi arrives in North America a defending champion, a record-sixth-tournament man and — by his own admission — almost certainly here for the final time. The hamstring he's nursing only sharpens the sense of an ending. Argentina don't just want to win; they want to send him off doing it.
The 2022 triumph freed him; this is the encore nobody is ever promised. He said his farewell on home soil in March, and now the defending champions are built around managing his body as carefully as his genius — a title defence that is half tactics, half physiotherapy.
It is the back half of a duet, too: he and Ronaldo, one last shared stage. Whatever happens on the pitch, the broadcasters have their story, and so, frankly, does football.
We've spent twenty years arguing about him. We'll spend twenty more missing him. This is the last summer of the argument.
Win or lose, the sport is about to watch one of its defining careers take its final bow in real time.
Sources: DAZN — Argentina squad · ESPN — Messi's goodbye.