Last dance at the World Cup? Lionel Messi’s 2026 could turn out to be a damp squib | OneFootball

The last meaningful year of Lionel Messi‘s career is upon us. He probably didn’t envisage it starting with a 3-0 defeat.

Late last year, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner signed a contract extension with Inter Miami that runs until 2028. If he sees it through, he’ll emulate his great rival in playing into his forties.

Just as Cristiano Ronaldo chases down his thousandth goal out in Saudi Arabia, we can probably consider those last couple of years a postscript.

He’s already transformed Inter Miami into MLS champions, while his exceptional 2025 campaign was befitting of a player of his stature dropping down to the lap.

You’d expect footballing royalty to make mincemeat of MLS defenders, and so he did on a near-weekly basis. There is little yet to prove out in the United States.

After completing football in Qatar, you might argue that we’ve already been at the victory lap stage for the past three years. But this summer’s World Cup offers Messi an opportunity to add to his legacy, mixing it with world football’s absolute elite one last time.

He could become the first player in the history of football to deliver back-to-back World Cups as a captain. But he has to be there, and that’s far from guaranteed.

Messi has been honest that he’ll step away from international if he doesn’t feel he’s at the right level. These next few months of MLS football will be crucial to that decision.

On the evidence of Inter Miami’s 2026 season opener, a 3-0 loss to Son Heung-Min’s LAFC, the road ahead is far from straightforward.

The veteran captain looked out of sorts in the loss. Old pals Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets have retired. Luis Suarez has been moved to the periphery.

“I would like to be there. To feel well and to be an important part of helping my national team, if I am there,” Messi said in October.

“I am going to assess that on a day-to-day basis when I start preseason next year with Inter [Miami] and see if I can really be 100%. I’m really eager because it’s the World Cup.”

The encouraging thing for Argentina is that they won the last Copa America without Messi at his brilliant best.

The captain wasn’t anywhere near as influential as he’d been in their last win, or at the World Cup in Qatar, but his team-mates stepped up – particularly when he was forced off with injury in the final.

But Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni isn’t willing to look to a future beyond the nation’s all-time top goalscorer just yet.

“He will decide, and we will support whatever he decides,” Scaloni told reporters in December.

“In principle, everything is going well, but six months is a long time. There is still time.”

There was a school of thought that Messi could be involved as the ultimate luxury player, his lack of legs carried by the younger guns, used as and when needed. But the reality looks quite different just four months away from the World Cup.

A recent report in the Argentinian press suggested that Scaloni is concerned about the form of a number of his key players in these crucial build-up months.

Alexis Mac Allister has notably dipped since Liverpool’s title win last season. Lautaro Martinez has just suffered an injury setback. It’s months since Julian Alvarez’s last goal from open play.

Young players like Alejandro Garnacho haven’t quite kicked on as hoped. Nicolas Otamendi just turned 38 and Benfica are nowhere to be seen in Portugal’s Primeira Liga title race. A replacement for Angel Di Maria has not yet emerged.

Messi’s talismanic leadership may yet be required.

One game is way too early to start writing him off. If he can get back to the ridiculous levels he reached in Inter Miami’s triumphant 2025 campaign, he’d surely be more than useful on the biggest stage of all.

But he turns 39 midway through the tournament, he hasn’t yet decided he’ll even be there, and the clock is ticking.